SOUTH DEERFIELD — The only thing standing in the way of Mahar Regional School pulling off a huge comeback victory in Tuesday night’s Western Massachusetts Division III Boys’ Basketball Tournament first-round game was Frontier Regional School’s Carsten Carey.
And at 6-foot-7 in his basketball sneakers, Carey came up just as big as he stands tall.
The Frontier junior blocked what would have been a go-ahead 3-pointer by Mahar’s Charlie Barnes with 6 seconds to play as the Red Hawks survived a nail-biter to take a 43-39 victory at Goodnow Gymnasium.
The eighth-seeded Hawks (14-7) advance to face top-seeded Monument Mountain Regional High School (17-3) Friday night in Great Barrington at 7.
The game came down to the final seconds, when Mahar took a timeout with 17 seconds left and possession of the ball. The Senators were on a 6-0 run that closed an 8-point deficit in the final 90 seconds to two points, at 41-39. Mahar coach Chad Softic attempted to draw up a play to get guard Sam Paul free for a shot, but when the shot wasn’t there, Paul smartly kicked the ball out to Barnes, who appeared to have enough room in the corner for a 3-pointer that would have given the Senators the lead with 6 seconds left.
Carey had other thoughts, as he quickly stepped out and hoisted his long frame into the air, blocking the shot, which teammate Kalen Evans managed to grab before getting fouled with 5.2 seconds to play. He made the first free throw but missed the second, but Carey cleaned things up as he tipped the rebound to teammate Ben Litskoski, who was fouled with 1 second left, and he knocked down a final free throw.
“I just knew he was going to shoot it, and usually when I know the corner guy is going shoot, I just try to get out and contest it a lot,” Carey said of the game-deciding block.
Softic said that Carey’s length is something many players are not used to playing against.
“Charlie got the ball in a pretty good spot but Carey came out of nowhere and made a pretty good play,” Mahar coach Chad Softic said. “He’s got sneakier length than the kids are accustomed to. They think they have enough space to shoot the ball but they don’t.”
Things were ominous for Frontier throughout the game, beginning at the end of the first quarter when the fire alarm went off at the school due to a small fire in the art room. The full gymnasium evacuated when a janitor ran in to alert everyone that it was not a false alarm, and the game did not resume for 30 minutes.
The game did seem to be going better for the Red Hawks late in the fourth quarter, as they took their largest lead of the game with 2 minutes, 49 seconds to play when Owen Morse hit a free-throw following a made hoop. The old-fashioned 3-point play put Frontier up 41-33 with 2 minutes, 49 seconds remaining.
Neither team scored in the next minute, but Paul (8 points) was fouled with 1:35 to play and went to the line for a one-and-one. He calmly drained both shots, and it was then that things began going very wrong for the Frontier offense. Whether it was throwing inbounds passes to Mahar players, throwing the ball away due to the full-court press, or having the ball stripped from them, the Hawks had seven turnovers in the final 90 seconds.
Two free throws by Matthew Jenks (12 points) and two more by Quinn Gervais (6 points) pulled the Senators back to within two at 41-39 with 28 seconds left. After the Gervais free throws, Frontier attempted to inbound the ball, but the pass went directly to a Mahar defender, who dished it to Jenks. To that point, the Mahar senior center had come up huge all night for the Senators (13-8), but he was unable to knock down a shot from inside the paint that would have tied it, and Evans grabbed the rebound and was fouled. Evans had a chance to extend the lead but he missed the front end of a 0ne-and-one and Mahar grabbed the rebound, setting the stage for the dramatic finish.
Mahar got off to a strong start as Jenks scored the first eight points of the game for the Senators as they led 14-10 after the first quarter. Following the fire-delay, Mahar continued to play well and increased the lead to 18-10, but Frontier ended the second quarter on a 12-2 run, which was ignited by Morse, a freshman who hit two 3-pointers in the second quarter and wound up with 7 points in the late run. Frontier coach Ben Barshefsky was thrilled with the effort of his freshman.
“Morse is absolutely fearless. He has alligator blood running through his veins,” Barshefsky said. “Nothing fazes him. He’s just a kid who loves to play basketball and he has spent countless hours working on his shot and it paid off tonight.”
Carey paced Frontier with 16 points, while Morse netted 14. Alex Sharp and Evans each tossed in 5.