Gavin Davies sprinted toward midcourt with his right arm flexed out, hand exposed and prepared for the ball.
Hopkinton’s junior forward darted right in front and intercepted a Kearsarge pass as the visiting Cougars were trying to tie up their Division III boys’ basketball game with seconds to go.
Davies had other plans, however, when he stole the ball, drew a foul and proceeded to sink one of his two free throws as the Hawks held on for a 44-40 win over the Cougars on Monday night.
It was a total team effort for Hopkinton in the win. The Hawks have spent more than enough time away from the court, as the program was in and out of action because of COVID-19 issues. Before Monday night, the Hawks hadn’t played a game in almost two weeks, and there’s no way to simulate game-like speed no matter how hard a team gets worked in practice.
The fatigue showed up in spurts, but an early 5-0 run to start the game hid it well. Hopkinton (8-1) set the tone with its defense and established that points in the paint would have to be hard-earned for the shorter but more physical Kearsarge team.
Highlighted by center Brendan Elrick (seven points, five blocks) and a rotating cast of forwards, including Eli Standefer and Davies, the Hawks forced their visitors into shooting more from the perimeter and midrange – a skill the Cougars have but seemingly couldn’t tap on the road.
The Hawks’ defense had some lapses as well. They allowed a 5-0 run by the Cougars to start the third quarter and traded the lead throughout the opening eight minutes of the second half. Elrick closed out the quarter, though, with a major three-point play as he was fouled while shooting. Not only did the ball fall through the net, the 6-foot-8 All-State player made the and-one free throw opportunity that followed.
Elrick’s conversion with 3.6 seconds left in the third quarter helped establish the next few minutes of Hopkinton’s fourth period. A quick 3-pointer from Will Tanuvasa and a free throw from Abram Standefer gave the Hawks a six-point lead early in the final quarter.
Where it looked like Hopkinton would close the game out, Kearsarge went to the drawing board with behind a 3-pointer from Bobby Needham and a Chris Stanchfield free throw, the Cougars were only down 43-40 with 18.7 seconds to go.
Stanchfield (19 points) was the thorn in Hopkinton’s side all night long, as the senior guard routinely found ways to score to keep Kearsarge in the game down the stretch. But the defense he had managed to elude throughout the second half stood its ground when it needed to most, and Davies’ steal capped off an impressive win after nearly two weeks of down time.
“We brought the effort on defense from moment one,” Hopkinton coach Steve Signor said. “I looked at them in the second quarter and said, ‘Could you imagine a 9-5 game with two high-powered offenses?’ Both teams locked it down, but we got the better of them.”
Signor makes a valid point. Before their matchup, the Hawks had averaged 57 points per game and the Cougars netted 61.6. In a game between two teams that made the Division III final four a year ago, the playoff-like atmosphere permeated throughout the gym with the roar of the crowd – each school had its own student section – and the pace of play during the game.
“It was nice to be tested,” Kearsarge coach Nate Camp said. “This felt like a semifinal game where the crowd is just going crazy, and it was nice to be a part of.”
The Cougars (9-1) absorbed their first loss of the season but, according to Camp, the adjustments that need to be made to get back into the win column are minimal.
Both teams close out the season with a stretch of eight games squeezed into a tiny allotment and have a regular-season rematch at Kearsarge on Feb. 7.