EXETER, N.H. — Shooting free throws in the fourth quarter of a tight state championship basketball game. It’s just you and the ball. And the basket. And your sweaty palms. And your pounding pulse. And all that noise.
Jackson Stone and the Lebanon Raiders made it look oh so easy.
Riding superb defense through three quarters, the Raiders converted 13 of 15 foul shots in the fourth for a 40-33 win over Pelham to take the NHIAA Division II boys basketball championship on Saturday at Exeter High.
In completing a perfect stop-start COVID-19 campaign, Lebanon (15-0) saw an 11-point third-period lead disappear and trailed twice briefly in the fourth but never showed signs of wilting. The net result: the school’s sixth NHIAA boys hoop crown, the third under longtime coach Kieth Matte.
“I like that they would foul us, because even if we missed the free throws, they had to go against set D,” Matte said. “If you turn it over, they run it up the floor and then who knows what’s going to happen. When they started fouling, I knew we were going to win.”
Stone led the parade to the line by going 6-for-8, all in the last two minutes and change. Lebanon as a team shot 15-for-19 from the stripe.
“Mr. Matte has preached all year that free throws are the most important thing, especially in the playoffs,” Stone said. “We all practice, all season long, free throws after practice, 25 makes after practice. He’s preached all year that free throws win championships, and that helped us do it today.”
The charity stripe clinched the win, but the Raiders’ defense set it all up.
Lebanon’s man-to-man plan sought to diminish the effect of Pelham shooting guard Jake Dumont, with Stone getting the primary responsibility. The Raiders also needed to reduce the input of Zach Jones, the Pythons’ big senior forward, and they had to do it with limited options.
The team learned Thursday that juniors C.J. Childs and Cam Davio, usually first-off-the-bench baseline options, would miss the title game because of COVID-19 contact tracing rules. That put much of the weight on junior Nyeoti Punni, who didn’t disappoint.
Punni grabbed seven rebounds, blocked three shots and hit two of the fourth-quarter foul shots that ultimately delivered the victory. Armed with a long wingspan, Punni held Jones to nine points, giving his counterpart something to think about every time Pelham tried to get the basketball down low.
“At the beginning of the year, we weren’t sure he was going to be our five,” Matte said. “We knew we needed to play a kid that talented. We knew we had to get that kid on the floor.
“I don’t think he was crazy about the idea, and then he just embraced the role. He’s always been sort of a perimeter player — he can dribble, he can shoot — but we needed someone, and he stepped up.”
Both teams seemed comfortable playing deliberate half-court basketball through the opening two quarters. Lebanon didn’t start to get separation until Braeden Falzarano (game-high 13 points) stuck a left-wing 3-pointer at the first-period buzzer for a 7-4 lead.
A team that needs its perimeter game to succeed, Lebanon stretched out its advantage to 17-10 by halftime with well-timed trifectas. Calvin Bates (eight points) upped the Raiders’ edge to 10-4 with a right-wing swish with 6:06 left in the half; a second one made it 15-8 with 2:27 on the clock.
Pelham’s attack had little success against the Raiders’ athletic defenders. The Pythons finished the half shooting just 4-of-18 from the floor and staring at that seven-point deficit.
The Raiders were in danger of running away with the game in the third period, building a 23-12 lead with 5:01 on the clock. Lebanon’s offense stalled at that point, and Dumont (team-high 12 points) broke free from Stone enough to score eight points in a 10-0 run that got the Pythons (15-2) to within 23-22 entering the fourth.
Pelham twice took one-point leads early in the final period; Jones’ third foul, with 4:53 to play, put Lebanon in the bonus. The foul-line experts took it from there.
“We can go eight guys deep, and today, for the most part, we had six,” Falzarano said. “You get so much more tired out there. They play fast; we wanted to play fast. There were multiple times the coaches called timeouts to give us breathers. It worked out in the end.”
Punctuation has evaded Lebanon High sports since the pandemic started. Matte’s team last winter was good enough to win states, but COVID-19 nixed the tournament. Summer baseball had a title shot canceled; the same happened to football a few months later.
With that much adversity, shooting fourth-quarter free throws with a championship on the line looked like child’s play.
“People say it’s hard to shoot free throws with all the noise, and I think it’s easier when it’s quiet,” Stone said as his teammates roared in the background. “The quietness … I mean, it’s definitely a lot of pressure, but I’ve been practicing my whole life to win a championship. It all paid off.”
Free Throws: Folks arriving early at Exeter High on Saturday were greeted by a long line of cars accessing the back of the school property for COVID-19 vaccinations. … The SAU 16 set-up staff went above and beyond the call of duty for the media. Two people hauled in portable steps, two boxes bearing croquet sets and a pile of plastic spotting dots so that radio and webcasting broadcast crews could have level tables for their equipment. … Adjacent Bill Ball Stadium, a frequent host of NHIAA field hockey and soccer playoff games, was void of nearly all snow and sported about a half-dozen youths throwing around a football. … Lebanon graduates three: Bates, Karsten Hansen and Logan Sanchez.
Greg Fennell can be reached at gfennell@vnews.com or 603-727-3226.