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| By Dave Haley, Posted 03-17-2010 | ||
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| Wed 03-17-2010 | Score |
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| Pinkerton Academy | 61 |
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| Dover | 57 |
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The Dover high school basketball team Wednesday night was the weary traveler just looking to finally get to their destination and find a room for the night. Pinkerton center Zach Mathieu unfortunately was the officer on the rural country highway who wasn't going to give them a break on the ticket. Mathieu was the Tow truck driver who hauled their vehicle away and Mathieu was the desk clerk with only two cars in the parking lot who insisted there were no rooms available.
Dover fought for 32 minutes for a shot at the title Saturday afternoon and Mathieu just wasn't allowing it. Dover fell just short in a game that wasn't decided until the final 2 seconds.
Zach Mathieu would score 16 points in a row for Pinkerton Academy in the second period and 32 for the game as the Astros took a 61-57 victory that leads them to their first Class L title game appearance since 1993. "We beat a very, very good Dover team tonight. A very well coached team with a lot of great players and I couldn't be prouder of our guys," said Pinkerton Academy coach Peter Rosiniski after the biggest win of his coaching career.
Dover came out with a big home court advantage as their side of the gym seemed to double the size of the late arriving Pinkerton crowd. The Green Wave made a conscience effort to take the ball at Mathieu and frontcourt mate Ben Proulx and the result was two quick fouls that sent Proulx to the bench. A Morgan Faustino drive and bucket to made it 11-6 early.
Dover applied heavy pressure to Pinkerton's guards and it resulted in three first period steals as Chad Park and Kevin Colbert struggled to get the Astros offense into its set plays. "We wanted to make it very difficult for them to look into the post and you do that by applying pressure," said Dover head coach Mike Romps.
Dover took a 14-8 lead into the second period or as we'll refer to it here ‘Zach Mathieu's eight minute highlight film'.
As Dover worked the ball around the perimeter and up the sidelines for good looks Pinkerton got the ball into the Mathieu and watched him go to work. Every time Dover came up with a big shot, like a textbook press breaker that had Justin Dube flashing middle and finding Keenan Al-Darraji in stride for a 20 footer that made it 22-17 Dover, Mathieu answered on the low block.
Mathieu would score 16 consecutive Pinkerton points, all which made the fact that Proulx was on the bench in foul trouble a moot point. " I chased that kid around in 8th grade to get him on our team and people thought he was cocky and would never be anything special," said Rosiniski of his 6'7 All-state center. "I'll tell you what though he has a heart of gold and he has worked so hard at his game to get to this point."
Dover took a 31-29 lead into halftime but the issue of the 6'7 guy who nobody could stop wasn't going away. Romps rotated players on to Mathieu and he pressed in order to get the Astros into a faster pace but none of it worked. Mathieu cleaned up a miss by Proulx for the basket and foul to give his team a 46-41 lead. Colbert then added a drive off the glass as the Astros went on a 10-2 run to end the 3rd period and take a 49-42 lead.
Short of bringing broom sticks to wave in Mathieu's face the Green Wave had tried everything and decided in the fourth that they were going out applying pressure. Forced into a half-court game for most of the night Dover made a run, just as they had all season, in the final period. Al-Darraji buried a three off of a curl to open the frame and was followed by a baseline drive by Faustino and a deep three for Lounge member Alex Burt to tie the game at 51 apiece with 3:43 remaining.
Ryan Williams (who played well all night for Pinkerton) pulled a lefty scoop shot in the lane out of his pocket to put the Astros back on top as the teams would trade baskets for the next two minutes.
Dube stole a pass at mid-court and hit Burt for a break-away lay-up and Mathieu scored (AGAIN) on a nice feed from his power forward Alex Patrikis (who looked lost in the first half and like an all-star in the second).
Al Darraji buried two pressure cooker foul shots to tie the game at 57-57 with 1:18 left.
Pinkerton, who had trouble the entire second half with Dover's half-court traps, adjusted to the pressure as Proulx broke to the basket with the ball and found Mathieu for two. Pinkerton had learned from their previous mistakes and coach Rosiniski had his players in the right spot at the key moment. "We showed good composure in the last minute there," said the veteran Pinkerton coach.
On the ensuing Dover possession Faustino, who had been taking it strong to the goal all night, was caught shuffling his feet and called for traveling. Pinkerton then killed 25 seconds off the clock running an effective four corners. Williams was finally fouled and hit one of two free throws to make it 60-57 with 22 seconds.
With the game on the line Dover put it in the hands of the only player that should have had it; Alex Burt.
Burt dribbled at the top of the key as Dover tried to set several screens for Al-Darraji to get loose on. But Pinkerton doubled on the screens and as Burt continued to watch the clock and look for an open shooter Williams applied heavy ball pressure and trapped Burt along the sideline. Proulx came up with the loose ball and was fouled.
One foul shot with 2.7 second left would ice it.
He missed the first.
Made the second.
With a four point, two possession lead, with time expiring Pinkerton could finally celebrate as Mathieu caught the inbounds pass and threw it hard off the backboard.
"You know its one play here and one play there, the game could have been ours," said Romps outside of a somber locker room. "I'm proud of the kids, they played very hard and it could have gone either way. They fought like this all season."
Pinkerton refused to get into a shooting contest with the smaller Green Wave and showed very good discipline in taking only three 3 pointers all game long. Hey when you have a 6'7 center who finishes the game 15 for 20 from the floor, it's not the time to try and re-invent the wheel.
"We had an advantage with Zach down low and we rode him all night. I suspect we'll do that again on Saturday," said Rosiniski
Let's hope for Winnacunnet's sake Mathieu is in a more forgiving mood come Saturday.