PENACOOK – Teams rely on their best players in the most important moments. In Yves Mugiraneza’s case, it was three moments.
Concord Christian’s Brode Frink recorded an astounding 48 points and 17 rebounds, but Holy Family Academy’s Mugiraneza hit three buzzer-beaters – a deep 3-pointer to force overtime, a drive to the basket to set up a second and a floater in the lane that fell through the net as time expired – to lift the No. 6 Griffins over the No. 2 Kingsmen, 86-84 in double overtime, in Monday night’s Division IV semifinal at Merrimack Valley High School.
It was a matchup that surely will go down in NHIAA history as one of the most thrilling basketball games ever played. The packed gymnasium at MVHS witnessed 20 lead changes, six of them in the fourth quarter and 10 combined in the two overtime periods.
A rematch of last year’s semifinal (the No. 2 Kingsmen topped the No. 6 Griffins, 59-42, a year ago at MVHS), Concord Christian (19-2) had already defeated Holy Family (16-5) in a pair of close games in the regular season (67-63 on Jan. 4 and 83-74 on Jan. 24). But Monday night’s loss was an upset for CCA, a defeat that prevents the Kingsmen from making a return trip to the D-IV championship game (CCA lost to Woodsville 58-49) and a victory that sends Holy Family to its first title appearance in school history after three consecutive trips to the final four.
“We played our hearts out,” Frink said. “But Yves is a really good player. We did the best that we could.”
Frink, only a sophomore, had already crossed the 1,000 career points threshold in two seasons (with a layup in the second quarter of a Feb. 10 victory over Sunapee) and had the first 18 points, plus two steals and a block, for the Kingsmen on Monday night. He put points on the board in every possible way: long 3s, short jumpers, layups and free throws, while throwing his body all over to the court to go after loose balls and twisting and contorting every which way to get to the rim.
Holy Family led 19-16 after the first quarter and 27-18 almost midway through the second quarter before senior Austin Spurr (16 points, four rebounds, three steals) scored the first non-Frink basket of the game to make it 27-20.
“He tried to put the whole team on his shoulders,” third-year CCA head coach Eric Heizer said. “Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. … He started off really hot. We were encouraging him to get his teammates involved so he didn’t have to do everything.”
Spurr’s bucket sparked a 15-3 CCA run that put the Kingsmen up 33-30 at halftime.
“We gave up way too many offensive rebounds. It killed us,” Heizer said. “When you have a 6-8 kid in the middle, it’s really hard to match up against him. And then they’ve got a couple really good guards that play really physical and change things up. It’s a tough matchup.
“We ended up switching to a zone to try to slow them down a little bit. We got back, took the lead. We felt good going into halftime because we weren’t playing great, but we were still up.”
Holy Family outrebounded the Kingsmen, 43-36, led by 6-5 senior forward Sean Sullivan (27 points, 13 rebounds, block, steal), 6-8 senior center Sean Peterson (nine rebounds, six points, two blocks), senior forward Jack Vicinanzo (seven points, six rebounds) and freshman Enzo Yonkeu (five rebounds off the bench)
Mugiraneza (22 points, five rebounds, two steals) and junior guard Gabe Lacasse (20 points, four rebounds, three steals) caused all kinds of problems in the Concord Christian backcourt.
Senior forward Mason Kerr (nine points, eight rebounds), and senior guards Ethan Young (eight points, four rebounds) and Owen Heizer (three points, rebound) helped CCA build its biggest lead of the game (39-30) early in the third quarter. Lacasse connected a huge pair of 3s to cut the Kingsmen’s lead to 53-52 heading into the final frame.
The two teams were never separated by more than three points over the final eight minutes of regulation.
It looked like Concord Christian caught a break when Peterson fouled out with 3:08 remaining and Heizer sank a free throw to make it 60-57. Sullivan connected on a free throw to tie the game 62-62 with 35 seconds left, and Frink had a 3-pointer with 21.9 seconds on the clock to make it 65-62.
The Kingsmen defended the perimeter well, but Mugiraneza heaved a prayer from about 35 feet that stopped the clock with 0.4 seconds left to send the game to overtime.
“We thought we were in a pretty good spot,” coach Heizer said. “In retrospect, we probably should have fouled at the end of regulation, but we didn’t. Yves hit a couple of unbelievable shots. We might’ve gotten a little bit impatient, but that’s part of how we played all year. It just didn’t go down for us.”
Spurr shot 7-for-8 from the foul line in OT to give CCA a 75-73 lead with 12.4 seconds left on the clock and made some clutch defensive plays late in the game as well.
“We’ve got pretty versatile guards. They’re all kind of interchangeable in some respects, and Austin has been great for the three years that I’ve been here,” coach Heizer said. “He can run the point, he can play it forward, he can play a lot of different positions, he’s been shooting the ball really well. He’s been knocking down some floaters for us, and you saw that tonight. He’s been awesome. He also does stuff on the defensive end, too. He does a lot of little things, too, that help us.”
Mugiraneza advanced the ball past half court before Griffins head coach Keith Lacasse smartly called a timeout with 8.5 seconds left to craft one more play.
“I think we had the advantage when we went into overtime,” said Lacasse, whose team upset No. 3 Farmington on the road in overtime, 69-67, in the quarterfinals. “Concord Christian hasn’t gone to overtime yet. We’ve been there before, so I think that played into our favor. … Just not quitting. It was a great upset.”
Mugiraneza weaved through the CCA defense and drove to the basket to lay in the game-tying points as time expired.
Mugiraneza found Sullivan under the net with a nice pass to put Holy Family up 84-81 in the second overtime, but Frink tied the game at the free throw line with 44.6 seconds left.
Mugiraneza cut through the CCA defense again, but had to go up for a shot from farther out this time, and his floater in the lane touched nothing but net on its way through, making his third buzzer-beater the last one required.
“Yves hit a couple of unbelievable shots,” coach Heizer said. “We might’ve gotten a little bit impatient, but that’s part of how we played all year, it just didn’t go down for us (tonight).”
As the Holy Family fans charged the floor to celebrate the win over their rivals, the same play ended the careers of seven Concord Christian seniors – starting guard Aidan Duffy, Young, Spurr, Heizer, Kerr, Wilson Rose and Gavin Ross – who helped raise the Kingsmen from the bottom of the D-IV barrel to one of the league’s top programs.
“I’m really proud of these guys. It’s not the way we wanted to end it, but somebody had to lose it, and unfortunately it was us tonight,” coach Heizer said.” But that group of kids, I love them to death.”
“I just feel bad for the seniors,” Frink added. “We gave it our all. I love each and every one of them. We have a great coach and I’m looking forward to next season.”
Holy Family will play No. 4 Woodsville on Saturday at Colby-Sawyer College in the D-IV championship.