Sunapee
Mount Royal Academy, a school with fewer than 30 boys, dropped its NHIAA Division IV first-round boys basketball tournament game, 65-52 to Epping, but continues to spread the message that the size of its heart is still a factor.
The team has fielded a varsity team for only two years, but both years the Knights have qualified for the postseason and this winter had their first home playoff game.
While both schools play in the state’s smallest division, Epping, according to coach Nick Fiset, has an enrollment of about 300.
For a while, the Blue Devils, with their speed and depth, had the Knights in big trouble, leading 56-40 with 5:02 to go.
Then the Knights went on a spurt, scoring eight straight points, and there was still 3:25 to play. Fiset called the first of two timeouts and went into a delay game. The Knights started fouling but the Blue Devils couldn’t convert, and it was still an eight-point game with 2:05 to play. But close chances for the Knights were missed and the Blue Devils advanced to the quarterfinals.
“It might have been different if a couple of those shots had gone in,” Mount Royal coach Matt McMenaman said.
The loss closed out the season for the seventh-seeded Knights (12-9) while the 10th-seeded Blue Devils (11-8) will play No. 2 Pittsfield, a 95-34 winner over Wilton-Lyndeborough, on Friday in the quarterfinals.
“We better do a better job from the free-throw line,” Fiset said of his Blue Devils, who missed 14 attempts from the line. Hunter Bullock, a slashing guard who had 17 points and is a 70 percent free throw shooter, was just 1-for-11.
Epping had a 23-12 advantage in the second quarter that produced a 37-22 lead at the break. The Blue Devils gained the advantage with penetration, as they were quick with the pass and were strong off the offensive boards.
McMenaman attributed that sluggish start to perhaps the large crowd and the intensity of having a home tournament game.
“We might have been a little rattled,” he said.
But the Knights regained their composure and outscored the Blue Devils in the second half, 30-28.
“I think when we are good, we’re really very good, and when we are bad we’re really bad,” Fiset said.
One of those bad spells was midway through the fourth period.
“I don’t think we were ever in danger of losing the lead, but I give those guys over there credit for getting our attention,” Fiset said.
Sparking the rally was sophomore Andrew Normandin, who hit two big buckets in less than a minute and got the juices flowing for his teammates, who became ball hawks and forced the Blue Devils to play keep-away, finally subduing the Knights.
“We’re a small school, but we’ve got some players now and some coming along,” McMenaman said. “This is something for us to build on.”