Bishop Stang Pulls Away from Pittsfield in Fourth Quarter
PITTSFIELD, Mass. – The Bishop Stang boys basketball team used an 8-0 fourth-quarter run to take the lead for good in a back-and-forth game and came away with a 71-65 win over Pittsfield on Tuesday in the Division 3 State Tournament Sweet 16.
Sage Baptiste scored 26 points, including eight in the fourth quarter, to help the 21st-seeded Spartans earn a spot in the state quarter-finals against No. 4 Cardinal Spellman.
No. 5 Pittsfield (17-5) used a 6-0 run that spanned the third and fourth quarters to take a five-point lead when Keanu Arce-Jackson scored in transition to make it 52-47.
But the visitors answered with two straight 3-pointers from Talbot Lown (12 points) to retake the lead. After Tyrone Grimes hit a mid-range jumper for the Spartans, Carter Mungin (21 points, 12 rebounds) scored in the post for the Generals to draw within a point at 55-54.
It was still a one-point lead at 58-57 moments later, but Bishop Stang used a 9-1 run to go ahead, 67-58, with 3 minutes, 35 seconds to play.
The closest Pittsfield got was a five-point deficit with 20 seconds left to play.
“‘I’ll look at the film to tell me exactly what happened,” Pittsfield coach Jerome Edgerton said of the fourth quarter. “If I had to guess, I just feel that we never really looked to close the game out. I never felt we had the defensive intensity. I never felt we had the defensive focus it takes to win a state tournament game.
“That’s what happened. We got caught up so much in trying to score, that we forgot the most important part of the game. That’s what you’re seeing there. We just let the shooters get open.”
Bishop Stang found open looks from the perimeter throughout, making 12 3-pointers, including four from Lown.
“We knew [Pittsfield was] a really good team,” Bishop Stang coach Colbey Santos said. “We just talked about composure. I think our senior point guard [Gibson], he ended up with 18 points, 11 assists. He just led the way and kept us under control.
“We play in a tough league, and we battle all year long. The record [10-12], you look at it, and you might think we might be a pushover. But we play some tough basketball, so we’re ready to go.”
Early on, Pittsfield rode the momentum of its first-round win by grabbing a 13-6 lead.
Mungin scored six of the Generals’ first eight points, and Da’Sean Brown (21 points, six rebounds, four assists) capped the opening run with a bucket in transition with an assist from Makai Shepardson (nine points, three assists) to give Pittsfield a seven-point lead.
The Spartans answered with a 9-2 spurt to even the score after one quarter.
Bishop Stang led most of the second quarter, taking a five-point margin into half-time and going ahead, 35-28, early in the third.
Brown then caught fire for the Generals. The Pittsfield junior hit three 3-pointers and a transition lay-up and fed Mungin for a transition basket to help the hosts go ahead, 41-39.
The teams then traded baskets until Pittsfield was able to take its last lead, 48-47, on a Mungin putback in the closing seconds of the third.
Although that lead did not last, the impact of this year’s season will be felt for years to come, first-year coach Edgerton said.
“Part of me is upset, the other part of me is happy, but the other part is: We haven’t been here for a year,” Edgerton said. “We haven’t even implemented the full program yet. We haven’t even had the off-season.
“I’m really proud of the work we put in – the highs, breaking down some of the long-time barriers that PHS basketball has been facing. We were able to start knocking those down. … I feel good about where we’re going, no doubt about that. … I feel for my senior boys, but I’m definitely excited about where this program is going to head. Those senior boys know, like I told them in the locker room: They are the foundation for all the success to follow.”