LOWELL — Over the course of a long season, every team is susceptible to a bad night. 

Maybe your shot isn’t falling or maybe the other team is just feeling it, makes all their shots and leaves you shaking your head knowing there’s not much more you could have done to get the win. 

The Pioneer boys basketball team never had one of those games this winter. 

It was about as dominant of a season as a team can have, as the Panthers entered the Western Mass. tournament with an unblemished 18-0 record, blew past its three opponents to capture a Class D title before cruising through the MIAA Div. 5 state tournament. They capped it off with a 49-28 victory over No. 2 Hopedale in the championship game to close out a 26-0 season and bring a third state championship home to Northfield. 

Since the new tournament format went into place, just three boys basketball teams have finished the season without a loss: BC High in 2022, Worcester North in 2024, Norwell in 2025 and now Pioneer. 

“I can’t even fathom that right now,” Pioneer coach Scott Thayer said. “We didn’t lose a game. If you asked me at the beginning of the year I would have told you we’d lose some games. We just will, but it never happened. They just kept getting better. To their credit they never let it affect how they played. They could have thought ‘we’re undefeated, we can stop working.’ Instead they started working harder. That’s a crazy dynamic. They’re just great kids.” 

Over its 26 games, Pioneer was barely tested. 

Greenfield and Hoosac Valley were the only two teams to give the Panthers a game, Pioneer beating the Wave 70-62 on Dec. 23 and on Dec. 27, the Panthers beat the Hurricanes 51-43. 

Those were the only two games where the score was decided by 10 points or less, as the Panthers’ win over Hopedale made it 22 wins in a row by 10 points or more. 

“We weren’t challenged at all,” Pioneer senior Brayden Thayer said afterward. “I can say it now.” 

He’s not wrong. In its 21 games prior to the state tournament, the Panthers outscored their opponents 1,469-845 for an average margin of victory of 70-40.2.

That didn’t change in the state tourney, where over a five-game span Pioneer outscored its opponents 330-151 for an average margin of victory of 66-30.2. Combine that and on the season, the Panthers had an average margin of victory of 69.1-38.3. 

Factor in the size of the school (112 students in grades 9-12), and it makes the accomplishment all the more impressive. 

“It’s unreal to be honest with you,” Scott Thayer said. “We’re a school 9-12 with 120 kids. How is that possible? It’s the culture. It started way back when I was an assistant. It’s about giving effort, energy, fundamentals and learning how to play the game.” 

The undefeated season was nothing new for the Panthers. 

Pioneer went a perfect 25-0 during the 1995-96 season to capture a state championship and repeated with a 25-0 season to reclaim its throne in 1997. 

Every Panther player practices in Messer Gymnasium with those undefeated season banners hanging. Now, they’ll have one of their own. 

“It’s a great feeling to be in that company,” Brayden Thayer said. “I don’t think any of us expected this at the beginning of the year. It’s just a lot of hard work and dedication.” 

With a rotation of five seniors — Thayer, Kurt Redeker, Alex McClelland, Ben Werner and Will Glazier — as well as sophomore Jackson Glazier and junior Judah Glenn, Pioneer had plenty of experience and talent in its lineup. 

Combine that with a team that found a way to improve each year — going from the Round of 16, to the quarterfinals, to the semifinals, to winning the championship over the last four years — and the championship run shouldn’t come as a shock. 

Finding a way to balance the expectations of the undefeated season was the biggest challenge, especially when you’re winning games in the style Pioneer did. But Scott Thayer made sure his team took things one game at a time and didn’t look too far ahead. 

“We drew on the experience of past years when we’ve been in those close games,” Scott Thayer said. “You aren’t going in trying to hold a team to 20 [points]. They’ve done a good job making the scoreboard irrelevant in games.” 

Complacency was never an issue either, as the constant improvement led to the 26-0 record. 

“The way everything came together, it was like a tidal wave,” Scott Thayer said. “We just kept getting better. That’s the fun part but the most ridiculous part for me.”