HANOVER — Mascoma High’s Gabe Rock was a veritable chairman of the boards in Thursday’s 55-52 victory over Littleton at Hanover High School.
The Crusaders (3-1) couldn’t contain the Mascoma big man during the first game of the Connecticut River Shootout. Rock, who finished with 17 points and nine rebounds, scored four of his seven field goals on put-backs.
The junior sank the Royals’ first bucket of the night from the free throw line as Littleton jumped out to an early 5-1 lead, a margin that stretched to 10 points midway through the second quarter.
The Crusaders were clicking early, exhibiting the skills that advanced them to last year’s NHIAA Division IV championship game where they lost to Epping.
The Royals (3-1) began to regroup following a timeout with 1:38 remaining in the first half as Connor Thompson and Rock both hit 3-pointers to trim the deficit.
But the Royals didn’t take their first lead until midway through the fourth quarter. Full-court defensive pressure was integral to the turnaround.
“It was really just defensive intensity,” said Mascoma’s first-year coach, Silas Ayres. “Finally they listened to me, picking up full court. I thought Cole Moulton — he’s only a sophomore — came in and really showed some guys at what intensity level we need to play defense at, so he really helped us there.”
The Royals tied the game at 45 on a 3-pointer by Ben Seiler, who finished with 16 points. Isaac Rayno hit a two-pointer from the top of the key for Mascoma’s first lead and then Seiler hit from deep again. Thompson (nine points) buried two free throws following a late timeout, then Littleton’s Parker Briggs tied the game from the foul line.
Mascoma saved one of its finest offensive possessions for the home stretch when Rayno bounced it down low to Hawk Shawn, whose baby-hook shot was the game-winner. Seiler scored the final point on a free throw before Rock stole Littleton’s inbound pass as time expired.
“They had the momentum the whole game, kind of driving us and then we kind of took the wheel at the end of the game,” Seiler said. “Coach said, ‘We’ve got to have intensity if we want to win this game and it starts with defense,’ and I think it showed in the fourth quarter.”
Mascoma’s best performances still have yet to come, according to the guard with three 3-pointers on Thursday.
“We’ve been waiting all year,” Seiler said. “We haven’t really clicked as a team yet, but I think that showed it right there what we can really do if we come out. Our defensive intensity was good, we came out in the fourth quarter and really just put in on and I think that’s what kind of kicked our offense going a little bit, you know, with intensity. We get the bench going, get guys involved and everyone kind of gets going.”
Mascoma will face off in the Shootout’s championship game, Friday against Hanover, which defeated Woodsville, 59-24, in Thursday’s nightcap.
Jai White led the Marauders (3-0) with 16 points. Charlie Adams scored 15 (including three 3-pointers) and Hank Pikus chipped in 12. The Engineers (1-2), who were paced by Cam Burt’s seven points, will face Littleton in Friday’s consolation game.
“We need to run our offense, we need to run certain plays,” Hanover coach Tim Winslow said following the lopsided victory. “We press, that’s what we do. We press man, and then we do some other things off that. We didn’t really do anything off that tonight, we just (played) man-to-man and got a lot of options and that’s how we got a lot of points early. The thing was we needed to run offense, so once we got up, it was like, OK, let’s run offense.”
Friday’s championship game will pit Winslow against Ayers, a player he coached at Mascoma during the 1990s.
“He was a great player, thousand-point scorer at Mascoma,” Winslow said of the Royals’ first-year coach. “Nice guard that could do a lot of different things. He reminds me a lot of (Hanover starter) Nolan Gantrish; he’s that type of player. Silas could take you to the basket or he could shoot it, had a nice mid-range jump shot too.”
The Mascoma boys basketball coach is Silas Ayres. An earlier version of this story misspelled his name..