DALTON, Mass. – The Wahconah boys basketball team Thursday trailed by 13 points in the fourth quarter but battled back to have a shot to tie the game before falling, 48-43, to Joseph Case in the first round of the Division 4 State Tournament.

 

Eleventh-seeded Wahconah (9-12) got a game-high 26 points from Patrick McLaughlin in the final game of his stellar career.

 

But a 10-2 run by the Cardinals to end the third quarter ended up being the difference as Joseph Case (13-9) moves on to face No. 6 Burke in the Round of 16.

 

A seven-point spurt by the visitors early in the fourth quarter gave them their largest lead of the night at 43-30 in the low-scoring game.

 

But Wahconah answered with eight straight and later got a free throw from McLaughlin to make it 46-43 with 34.6 seconds on the clock.

 

After a Wahconah foul, Case missed two free throws with 33.3 ticks left.

 

With the Cardinals battling defensively on the perimeter, Wahconah still managed to get a 3-point try from the top of the key. But it was off the mark, giving Case a defensive rebound.

 

Wahconah was forced to foul, and the Cardinals’ Cayden Gonsalves made one of his two free throws to make it a two-score game with 12.8 seconds left.

 

Wahconah’s next shot rimmed out, and Case’ Jack Orton (10 rebounds) got the carom and got to the line 6.3 seconds to go. He made one shot to provide the final five-point margin of victory.

 

When it was over, Wahconah coach Dustin Belcher said he felt his steam struggled offensively all night.

 

“I never thought we were in any kind of good flow,” he said. “Credit to [Joseph Case]. Defensively, they played well. They created some tough matchups for us. I didn’t think we took advantage of some situations.

 

“But at the end of the day, this time of year, it’s the team that makes more winning plays, and they made more winning plays.”

 

Neither team could get any separation in a low-scoring first half that ended with the visitors up by one point.

 

Case led by as many as four after a 3 by Landon Cayton (19 points) at the end of the first quarter. Wahconah came back to take an 18-16 lead with fewer than two minutes left in the half on a McLaughlin 3-pointer.

 

But the Cardinals went into the locker room on top, 20-19, and Wahconah never got the lead back.

 

It was back-and-forth to start the third quarter, and a pair of free throws by Aidan Hagmaier (eight points) got Wahconah within three at 26-36 with 3:26 left in the period.

 

But Case got a 3-pointer from Aiden Parent to ignite a 10-2 run that opened an 11-point margin.

 

It was a nine-point game going to the fourth, but Case used a 7-0 run that ended in a triple by Gonsalves to go ahead, 43-30.

 

After a Wahconah timeout with 5:13 left on the clock, McLaughlin got an and-one to get the margin back to 10. He drove to the basket again to cut the deficit to eight before Jack DuCharme knocked down a 3-pointer to get Wahconah within five, 43-38, with 3:20 on the clock.

 

Parent ended that run with his third triple of the second half for Case, but Hagmaier scored four straight to get Wahconah back within four with 1:55 left.

 

Wahconah soon started intentionally fouling to get the Cardinals in the bonus. And they went 0-for-2 in their first trip to the line with 35.2 on the clock. McLaughlin got the rebound and got fouled; he made his second try to make it 46-43 – the last point Wahconah could manage.

 

Belcher said the eight-day layoff between last week’s Western Massachusetts Class B semi-final and Thursday’s state tourney opener could have contributed to his team’s lack of offense.

 

“I thought it did in the first half,” he said. “No excuses. They’re a good team, and they deserved to win the game. But I think playing in the [State Tournament] play-in game helped them. I thought they were in a much better flow than we were. Even though they didn’t score a ton of points, I thought they had better looks. They just looked more organized. We looked a little stagnant early.

 

“Everyone wants the higher seed. But that’s one thing you’ve got to work through. You’re going to be sitting around for a while, especially if you get knocked out of that Western Mass tournament before the final.”

 

Photos from this game here.