Young Falcons "Overwhelmed By The Moment" In First Round

By: Rich Maclone
Published: 02/28/10

Mashpee Head Coach Matt Triveri has never been one to pull punches. Last night he did not pull any punches when he assessed his team’s performance against Harwich in the first round of the Division IV state tournament, a game that the Falcons dropped by a 51-40 score on their home floor.

“I thought our kids were overwhelmed by the moment today,” Triveri said. “We had only one senior on the floor that plays, and our young kids were overwhelmed.”

Triveri said the Falcons’ loss was “extremely disappointing” as his team fell apart in the second half. After playing to a 23-19 lead at the intermission, MHS was outscored 32-17 in the second half. Crunch time was when the team’s offense truly was at its worst as the home squad managed just 11 points in the fourth quarter and were held scoreless for a key stretch that lasted nearly four minutes.

Harwich Head Coach Tony Catanzaro said his team’s zone defense was one of the big differences in the game for the Rough Riders as they held the Falcons to just 1-for-9 shooting from 3-point range in the game. Coupled with 19 turnovers, many of which were of the unforced variety, and the Falcons had fits trying to get anything accomplished with the ball in their hands. “They didn’t hit anything from outside. We were in that 1-3-1 zone and that limited them. When you don’t hit that first 3-pointer you start to think about it, and I think we got them thinking about it.”

Despite a lackluster third quarter, the Falcons were still very much in the game heading to the final stanza, trailing just 36-30. When guard Andrew Tubbs pick-pocketed the ball away from the Riders at the time line and sprinted in for an easy lay-up just seconds into the fourth, it looked like maybe MHS could swing the momentum back in their favor. It wasn’t to be, though. MHS, which shot just 4-for-11 from the free throw line, missed a pair of freebies on their next possession, with a chance to cut the lead down to two. They would eventually get it down to just a two-point deficit when Zack Orcutt dropped in a lay-up in transition, off a pretty feed from Tubbs, but HHS answered right back with a huge 3-pointer by Andy Sadowski.

Zack Macrae followed with a hook shot, with 5:50 left to play in the game, that pulled the Falcons to within three, 39-36, but then things fell apart for Mashpee. MHS missed a potential game-tying three and then turned the ball over on back-to-back trips. A lay-up by Dustin Beaudoin and then a put-back by Sadowski, with 4:00 left, made it a seven-point game. A drive to the hole by DJ Robinson, with 2:20 to play, gave Harwich its biggest lead of the night at nine points and the visiting rooting section began to go bonkers as it could see that things were going their way.

“We stopped passing the basketball. The guys tried to do too much. That’s what happens to young kids,” Triveri said.

MHS finishes the season at 13-9. Harwich (14-9) plays at top-seeded Westport tomorrow afternoon at 1.

Leave a Reply

In order to comment you need to be logged in.