LaCroix's Late Shot Dooms Devils' Upset Bid
AMHERST, Mass — All Robert Jutras and the Drury boys' basketball team needed was one stop, just one single missed shot in Robert Jutras More photos here |
Jutras put the fourth-seeded Blue Devils in that position by draining a 3-pointer from the left corner with 49 seconds left in the game. That gave Drury a 36-33 lead and left the Senators with most likely one shot to tie the game. Jutras harassed Mahar's leading scorer Jesse LaCroix for most of the 30-second shot clock, but the senior guard somehow sank a three from the left wing to tie the game with 17.9 seconds to go.
The Blue Devils had a chance to win the game at the buzzer, but Joel Giorgi's 3-point attempt from the left baseline hit off the back of the rim. LaCroix then came through with five more points in overtime, and the Senators held on for a 44-43 win at the Curry Hicks Cage on the campus of UMass-Amherst.
"They played hard," Drury head coach Jack Racette said of his team. "They played the way I wanted them to play. We just couldn't make a basket when we needed to. We had the last possession of the game. If you tell me that we'll have the last possession against the No. 1 seed with 12 seconds to go, I'm going to take my chances."
Right from the start, Mahar (19-3) knew it was in a for a dog fight against a Blue Devils' team that was much better than their 11-8 record would suggest. Drury jumped out of the gates early, taking a quick 7-3 lead thanks to a pair of baskets from Jutras. The Senators rallied back to tie it at 7 apiece by the end of the first quarter, but LaCroix would be forced to miss a large part of the second quarter due to foul trouble. The Devils' took advantage, using a 7-0 run by junior Nolan Bird to open up a seven-point lead. Bird scored all of his points during that one stretch, starting things off with a triple from the left wing. He then added an elbow jumper before banking in a turnaround off of a pass from senior center Brett Denning.
"We knew Drury was a tough-nosed basketball team that had a lot of pride," Senators head coach Chad Softic said. "They're a typical Berkshire team, and they came in and did exactly what I thought they would do. They played real physical, they left it on the floor, and it was a shame a team had to lose tonight."
Assists were a big part of Drury's game in the first half. Racette's squad moved the ball well throughout the first two quarters, taking their time on the offensive end and finishing with seven assists total in the first half. The Blue Devils also did a great job on the boards, outrebounding Mahar 14-9 thanks to seven offensive boards. The Senators kept the game close by knocking down a pair of threes in the second quarter, but Drury ran into the locker room up 21-17.
"They played man to man but then they went to that zone," Racette said. "It kind of gave us a little bit of problems, but we could rebound out of their zone. They really weren't finding people, so we kind of hit them on the boards a little bit there. We had the game where we wanted it at halftime. We were up four, but we knew they were going to make a big run. They were in foul trouble and their best player was on the bench for a lot of the first half."
Racette was right. Mahar did make its run in the third quarter, forcing their opponent into five turnovers and outscoring the Blue Devils 10-4 in the frame. Senior forward Slayter Aubin (seven points, 10 rebounds) scored first to give Drury a six-point lead, but LaCroix started a 10-2 run for the Senators by swishing a 3-pointer from the top of the key. All of a sudden it was Mahar who was the more aggressive team on the boards. Of its 19 rebounds in the second half, 10 of them came on the offensive end.
"They're the No. 1 seed for a reason," Racette said of the Senators' increased pressure in the third quarter. "They cranked it up a little bit. We knew they were going to, and we didn't execute it. We had some shots, but we didn't make them when we had to."
If there was a turning point in the game, it was certainly that third quarter. Mahar lost its other stellar senior guard Phil DiPhillipo (10 points), who went to the bench with his fourth foul with two minutes left in the quarter, but LaCroix finally started to gain some momentum. He made a steal as the quarter was winding down and pulled up to knock down a stop-and-pop jumper to give the Senators their first lead of the game, 27-25, heading into the fourth quarter.
"Honestly, every possession was so critical," Softic said. "When Drury was up by four, if they come out and hit that first three in the second half and put a little run on us, psychologically I think it would have hurt us. But, luckily, we were able to kind of hang in there and get some stops in the second half."
The fourth quarter and overtime period was as good as it gets as far as competition goes at the Cage. After LaCroix sank a baseline jumper to start the fourth, Giorgi (eight points) ended the Devils' long scoring drought by converting a 3-point play to pull Drury back within one point. LaCroix kept the pressure on with another pull-up jumper, but Jutras answered with one of his three treys on the night to tie the game at 31 all. The two teams remained tied until the final minute, when Denning found Jutras in the left corner on an inbounds play. The senior forward drained what could have been the game winner had it not been for an even better shot from LaCroix 30 seconds later.
Even in defeat, though, Jutras put in a performance to remember in his last game playing in a Blue Devils' uniform. The senior forward finished with a team-high 16 points and five rebounds and worked tirelessly on the defensive end guarding both LaCroix and DiPhillipo throughout the game.
"Early on in the year, people were questioning him," Racette said of Jutras. "It's kind of like [a baseball player] that hits .200 in the first four months of the year. Guys were shaking their heads, but we kept saying you're a good shooter. He just had to keep working because he was getting good looks. He wasn't missing left or right. He was missing short or long. Good shooters will find their niche, and he works so hard defensively. He exerts himself so much that sometimes it affects your jump shot a bit."
"But we knew he was a go-to guy. He's been a four-year guy for us."
But even as his team celebrated his huge basket, Jutras had a feeling in his gut that LaCroix wasn't done just yet.
"I knew he was going to come back down and pull the trigger," Jutras said. "I knew he was going to shoot something, and he just put it down. You can tell he's been here before and you can tell he's taken those shots before. We knew they were going to come right back down, so you can't take it easy."
It's one thing to make a game-tying 3-pointer, but it's an entirely different thing to make a shot with the degree of difficulty that LaCroix executed his with. Mahar's possession was not going well at all for the first 20 seconds of the shot clock. The ball was stuck in Darwin Duncan's hands at the top of the key, and LaCroix couldn't shake free of Jutras to receive the pass. He finally got it within the last 10 seconds of the shot clock, dribbled to his left, pulled up and leaned towards his right. His release was right on the money, though, and the ball hit nothing but net.
"He's an athlete and he makes plays," Softic said of LaCroix. "He'll certainly tell you it wasn't his prettiest game, but he made a couple of plays toward the end that got us over the hump. We left a few points out there but credit again goes to Drury. They had a great game plan, and I'm sure Coach Racette is proud of his kids."
The Devils had enough time to get off one last shot with 12.5 seconds left in regulation. Bird dribbled through the defense up the court and found Giorgi, who's shot was just a little off of the mark. Aubin then stripped LaCroix of the rebound and had a look at a lay-up, but LaCroix blocked him from behind as the buzzer sounded.
LaCroix then started the overtime period by scoring four points in a row, and things started to unravel for Drury, which saw both Aubin and Giorgi foul out early in the extra frame. Jutras sank one last triple from the left corner to pull his team within one point, but Duncan answered right back with a wide-open three of his own from the top of the key to put the Senators up by four points with 51 seconds to go. The Devils kept on playing until the final whistle, but time eventually ran out on the 2011-12 season.
"It's nice [to get back to the Cage], but there are no moral victories here," Racette said. "We had the game right where we wanted it, and I kind of think the third quarter was the difference. We've done that a couple of times where we come out of halftime and we're just not executing. We didn't get the ball where we had to, but we continued to defend, and that's something that we always do."
A one-point loss in the final game of your high school career is never an easy pill for a senior to swallow, but Jutras said he took solace in the fact that this team got back to the Cage one year after missing the playoffs with a 6-14 record.
"We got back to where we want to be as a program," Jutras said. "We brought defense back."