St. Thomas Aquinas boys basketball 'shocked' by semifinal exit; 5 takeaways from Saints loss to Mascoma

GOFFSTOWN – One by one, almost 30 minutes after their Division III semifinal against Mascoma ended, members of the St. Thomas Aquinas boys basketball team walked out of their locker room and quietly headed to their awaiting bus.

Heads were down, there was little talk, a few tears, and an overall sense of disappointment.

More:Defense sparks STA boys basketball team past Winnisquam and to Division III semis

For the second-seeded Saints, this was not how a season that produced 16 regular-season wins, with an average margin of victory just under 20 points, was supposed to end.

St. Thomas Aquinas missed its first 11 3-pointers, trailed by 14 after the first quarter, and by 24 at halftime. The Saints battled back in the second half, but were never able to get the deficit to single digits and third-seeded Mascoma Valley advanced to its first state championship game in 34 years with a 62-49 win in front of a standing-room-only crowd at Goffstown High School.

“I am shocked,” St. Thomas Aquinas first-year coach David Morissette said just steps outside of the Saints’ locker room after his team had exited ahead of him. “I thought Mascoma came out extremely confident, and we came out tentative, really tentative.”

St. Thomas Aquinas, which was looking to advance to its first state championship game since back-to-back appearances in 1991 and 1992, finished its season at 17-2.

“We really didn’t play St. Thomas basketball until the second half, and that’s too bad,” Morissette said. “These kids have had a great year. I am proud of them. I believe in these kids. We had a great year. We were a step behind tonight, and Mascoma was a step ahead. We dug ourselves to far of a hole, but you know what, I give the kids credit, they kept fighting.”

Here are five highlights from St. Thomas’ season-ending loss.

Thompson comes out firing for Royals

Mascoma senior Zach Thompson hit on two 3-pointers and was 4 for 4 from the free throw in the first 8 minutes as the Royals took a 19-5 lead into the second quarter.

For Thompson, it was just the beginning. He connected on six 3-pointers for the game, and went 5 for 6 from the line, scoring a game-high 23 points.

“I am going to miss him, I am really going to miss him,” Mascoma head coach Silas Aryes said. “He’s just a big-game baller, I can’t say enough about that kid. He’s a gym rat. He has earned this, and he shows up when the lights are bright.”

Thompson will play at Castleton State University, a Division III program in Vermont, next year.

“He’s a very good player,” Morissette said. “He’s going to be a really good Division III college basketball player for the next four years. He’s a problem for anybody. We knew he was going to get his 20; it was the others, the others got too many.”

Junior Tyler-Jay Mardin scored 15 points, including 11 in the first half for the Royals. Junior Aidan Smith had nine points, while sophomore Tanner Moulton added seven.

Thomson (10) and Mardin combined to score all of Mascoma’s 19 points in the first quarter.

Slow start puts Saints in deep hole

Aryes said he closed his eyes before going to sleep on Tuesday night and envisioned an aggressive start by his team, hoping to create havoc on both ends of the floor and causing multiple St. Thomas turnovers.

“I was debating whether or not to pressure them, or wait and see and trade blows with them,” Aryes said. “I figured we might as well come out strong. We pressured them, and I think they were a little nervous, and we took advantage of that. Our guys were knocking down shots, defending, getting steals, creating pace, and just playing our game. We knew we wanted to play more up-tempo than they did, and that first half we definitely pushed the pace.”

The Saints had eight turnovers in the first quarter and 11 in the first half.

“I wouldn’t say it was their pressure as much as our reaction to it,” Morissette said. “We knew it was coming, they were aggressive, and we were not in the first half.”

Saints misfire from long-range

St. Thomas Aquinas entered the game shooting the 3-point shot at a 38 percent rate on the season. They were just 3 of 19 (16 percent) on Wednesday.

Brady Rogers hit the Saints’ first 3-pointer with just under 3 minutes left in the third quarter, while freshman AJ Reinertson (14 points) followed on the next trip down the floor with his own trifecta, cutting the Mascoma lead to 47-29. Anthony Setterini hit St. Thomas’ other 3-pointer on the night in the fourth.

More:Why a St. Thomas Aquinas' boys basketball freshman has people taking notice

Conversely, Mascoma hit on 10 of their 21 attempts from 3-point territory.

“They made their shots, we didn’t,” Morissette said. “At the end of the day, we were tight, and the kids will tell you the same.”

Rogers led the Saints with 18 points.

“We didn’t come out strong like we normally do,” Rogers said. “We just didn’t play Saints basketball, it’s that simple.”

Saints battle to the end

St. Thomas outscored the Royals, 37-26 in the second half, cutting the deficit to as low as 13 with 3:05 left. The Saints then had chances to get the lead to single digits, but missed on back-on-back 3-point attempts with just over 2 minutes left.

“That’s a great team over there,” Aryes said. “They’re well-coached, and they fought back. If that game was 4 minutes longer, that would have been a real tight ball game. Credit to those guys, they didn’t quit, and fought back.”

“I thought we could come back,” Morissette said. “In the first half, it looked like that when we had the ball we didn’t know what to do, and when they had the ball, they knew what they wanted to do. In the second half that changed, but when you’re down 24, it’s kind of hard to come back.”

Both teams moving on 

Mascoma played in three straight championship games from 1987 to 1989, winning two, but haven’t back since beating Gilford, 48-44 in 1989. Those two teams will meet Saturday night at Keene State College.

Top-seeded Gilford, which beat fourth-seeded Hopkinton, 62-42 in Wednesday’s late semifinal, will be looking for its fourth straight state championship.  Mascoma (16-3) and Gilford (20-0) did not play each other in the regular season.

“This (win) is pretty special,” Aryes said. “We’ve had a few teams that had chances in final four appearances in recent years, but haven’t been able to take that next step.”

For the Saints, they graduate five players – Devon Paquette, Liam Lena, Reece Rogers, Cole Ford and Ryan Storm. Paquette (four points) and Rogers (three) were the only seniors who scored Wednesday.

“It was a great season,” Morissette said. “We put St. Thomas basketball back on the map. We got a very good group coming back. We’ll be back, we’ll definitely be back.”

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: St. Thomas boys basketball semifinal loss to Mascoma: 5 takeaways