NEW LONDON, Conn — It wasn’t the way the Northfield Mount Hermon School boys basketball team envisioned its magical late-season run ending.
Winners of 10 of their last 11 games, the Hoggers entered the semifinals of the National Prep Championship Tournament red hot but taking on a fierce Putnam Science Academy (Conn.) squad.
Behind a terrific first half offensively from point guard Darius Ervin, NMH found itself tied with the Mustangs at the half. Putnam took over early in the second half and never surrendered the lead however, pulling away for a 79-71 win over the Hoggers.
The championship game, which was scheduled to be played later on Thursday, was canceled due to concerns over the Coronavirus, meaning Putnam Science and Brewster Academy (N.H.) were named co-national champions.
“A couple calls didn’t go our way, a couple balls didn’t go our way and a couple shots didn’t go our way,” NMH head coach John Carroll said. “When it didn’t go our way, they were able to convert on their end. For me, that was the difference. They were able to convert mistakes on their end more than we did.”
Mustang guard Hassan Diarra, committed to play at Texas A&M next season, was a problem all night for NMH (28-10). The senior finished with 27 points, 13 in the first half and 14 in the final 20 minutes of action.
With the Hoggers making a run late, Diarra found ways to get baskets to prevent NMH from cutting it to a one-possession game. He knocked down eight consecutive free throws in the final three minutes of action to seal the win for Putnam.
“He was spectacular,” Carroll said of Diarra. “He drove downhill, he realized there was no resistance so he was able to drive past us and keep going all game. They had a reliable basket almost anytime they wanted with him.”
The Hoggers came in with a game plan to speed up the tempo and not allow Putnam to use its size to its advantage. In the first half, Ervin was the lone player who found a rhythm on offense, finishing with 16 points in the half. It was 38-38 at intermission.
After shooting 15-for-25 from the 3-point line against IMG Academy in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, NMH struggled from outside on Thursday. Senior Zach Taylor, who knocked down five 3’s en route to 22 points on Wednesday, knocked down just one shot from the floor.
“We dried up a little bit,” Carroll said. “We were 6-for-21 in the first half. I’m not sure what we were in the second half but it wasn’t much better. The whole thing for us was if [the final score] was under 80, they were going to win. If it was over 80, we were going to win. We had the tempo in the first half but they really had it in the second half.”
One of the reasons the Hoggers struggled to score points was the height the Mustangs had inside. Seven-footer Vladislav Goldin finished with 12 points while fellow 7-footer Josh Gray had five points, though the bulk of their impacts came on the defensive end of the floor.
“They have four 7-footers and a 7-foot-4 kids who doesn’t play,” Carroll said. “Their size fatigued us. You could see it.”
While Ervin kept NMH in the game in the first half, Putnam made an adjustment on screens that didn’t allow the 5-foot-8 senior to get any clean looks at the rim.
With the Mustangs putting pressure on Ervin on every touch he got, he was limited to just one 3-pointer in the first half to finish with a team-high 19 points.
“They made a nice adjustment on how they were switching,” Carroll said. “That took an impact on Darius where the coverage changed. The in-game adjustment wasn’t as good as it’s been in the past.”
Sam Silverstein and Prince Moses each finished with 12 points for the Hoggers while Luca Lukacevic added 10 points.
Putnam opened the second half on a 7-0 run to put itself in the driver’s seat. The Mustangs grew their lead as large as 11 points with seven minutes to play in the game, but a quick 6-0 run by NMH got it right back in the game with six minutes to play.
A Moses dunk cut the Hogger deficit to 73-69 with 1:50 to play, but NMH sent Diarra to the line three times late, where he knocked down each shot from the charity stripe.
While the season didn’t end the way the Hoggers would have liked, making it to their eighth final four in 11 years is an accomplishment, especially from where the season started.
“The way we did our exhibition games in the Bahamas, we were playing terrible basketball,” Carroll said. “For us to evolve to where we’ve gotten, where we’re top 10 in the country and one of the four teams left in playing in the country, to advance to this level and be this kind of team, I’m pumped for the guys.”