Cardinals come away with title this time

DURHAM – The memory of last season was fresh on the minds of the Bishop Guertin High School boys basketball team during the Division I championship game Saturday afternoon.

The Cardinals remembered how they felt after losing in the semifinals a year ago, how it left them thinking they could have accomplished more.

Those memories kept top-seeded Bishop Guertin going against No. 2 Trinity, despite a five-point deficit in the first quarter and a two-point deficit at halftime. And it kept them focused after the Pioneers hit a three-quarter court, buzzer-beating 3-pointer to end the third quarter.

Bishop Guertin went on a 15-4 run to open the fourth quarter to defeat Trinity 54-46 at the University of New Hampshire and win its first championship in boys basketball since 1983.

Connor Green and Sean McClung provided most of the offense, scoring 22 points each. Green added 11 rebounds and five steals and McClung 9-for-12 from the free throw line, and hit two 3s in the final quarter that helped swing momentum the Cardinals’ way.

Joe McCarthy chipped in with six points and Nick Pyzocha added six assists for Bishop Guertin (20-2).

“It feels unbelievable, I never thought I’d be this excited,” Green said. “We’ve had a lot of teams that could have done it and should have done it, especially last year. We knew we had to bring it home, not just for our team, but for our whole school.”

Wol Majong led Trinity (18-4) with 21 points, including a 3-pointer to end the third that came from the far side of the UNH logo at center court and hit nothing but net.

The shot gave the Pioneers a one-point lead going into the final eight minutes and it came directly after the Cardinals had held the ball for most of the final two minutes of the quarter.

“Made me look pretty stupid, but that’s all right,” Bishop Guertin coach Jim Migneault said. “When we held the ball at the end of the third quarter, that was to see if we couldn’t draw them out. We wanted to try and then that kid hits a 3 from three-quarters court.”

The shot had the potential to be a back-breaker for the Cardinals, but instead of hanging their heads, they regrouped on the sideline.

“That took the wind out of our sails,” Pyzocha said. “We came back. We knew we had to win this game.”

McClung tied the game at 36 with a free throw to open the fourth quarter and Green put Bishop Guertin up two with a layup before Majong hit two free throws to tie it again.

But on the Cardinals’ next possession, Pyzocha found McClung deep in the right corner, beyond the 3-point line and right in front of the Bishop Guertin student section. McClung’s shot splashed through the net, putting the Cardinals up 41-38.

Majong answered with a layup at the other end, but Pyzocha once again found McClung in the same spot and the senior’s 3-pointer went down, putting the Cardinals up four and swinging momentum again.

For McClung, it was a bit of redemption, after struggling with his shot for most of the playoffs.

“Coach is always telling me I’ve got to snap out of it at some point,” he said. “I was a little cold the first half, but I’ve got to keep shooting. Shooters have got to shoot. That’s what I did the second half. That’s just my place. I knew when I hit the first, I’d hit the second.”

Despite his pleas to find another spot, Migneault knows that corner McClung’s favorite spot on the floor.

“I keep telling him to get out of the corner during games,” Migneault said. “He went there and he found it. He made some great shots.

“Sean is like that. He can score 30 any time he steps on the court and he picked tonight to have a good game. I’m glad he did.”

Green and McClung did some more damage from the free throw line, combining to score the next six points on foul shots to make it a 10-point game with 1:13 to play, starting a celebration in the stands and on the court.

In all, the Cardinals made 11-of-15 free throws in the fourth quarter, but every foul called extended what felt like the inevitable for Bishop Guertin.

“I wanted the buzzer to go off and have it be over with,” Green said. “It was tough watching the clock slowly go down. We wanted it to be over with.”

When it finally was, the Cardinals went crazy.

“It’s tough to put in to words,” Pyzocha said. “It was so surreal, the final seconds. We knew we had it. Even from the beginning of the game, I just had that feeling that today was our chance, our time to take it.”