Hopkinton Girls, Boys Basketball Win South Titles. Play North Champs in TD Garden Monday, Tuesday.

The Hopkinton Hillers boys and girls basketball teams won both championships of Division 2 South in back-to-back games at UMass Boston's Clark Athletic Center Saturday night.

Both play the  final games of their seasons at the start of next week in the TD Garden, the same venue where the Celtics and Bruins play.

The girls ran away at the start of their game against Scituate - it was 23-10 after the first quarter.  As Scituate climbed back, Hopkinton held on to win a 52-50 squeaker.

In the boys game, Hopkinton fell behind by 17 points in the second quarter, but won by nine in overtime.

Katie Sousa, who had three, three-point shots for the Hopkinton girls first three baskets, had 11 points. Alee Leteria, with her athletic play at both ends of the floor, had  15. Lindsey Doucette scored 14. It was a total team effort.

Tess Chandler stole the ball as Scituate was about to go up by a basket with seconds left. Seconds later, she hit the layup winner. Victoria Munger stopped a Scituate last try.

Even with the gym doors open to 40-degree March weather, UMass's Clark Center was hotter than the third floor at Center School. The awful heat - and two fouls in the first 30 seconds on Leteria - led to coach Rita Atkinson looking for, and getting,  great performances from the bench, especially Dana Gogolin and Sarah Moses.

Strong bench play was about the only thing the girls and boys games had in common. From the opening tap, the boys wre run over by King Philip, led by 6'8" Jake Laymen, who handles the ball like a guard, rebounds and scores.

The game was quickly 10-2 King Philip, and at 25-10 in the second quarter it looked like the Hopkinton boys could call it a season.

But Barrett Hanlon chased down a Laymen breakaway and skidded on his stomach to knock the ball off Laymen's leg. Jake Doucette trapped a Laymen bunny on the glass. Wesley Erickson dropped two threes.

The score was 27-21 at the half. It was as shadowy in the UMass gym as a Hollywood alley, but the light was getting brighter for Hopkinton.

Remember, it was hot at UMass. Really uncomfortably hot, especially for New Englanders who've kept their houses' thermostats in the 60s for the past three months.

Hopkinton Coach Tom Keane kept cool with Tim and Jeff Dufficy, Brendan Litavis, Tim Moberg and Graham Eagan. The rest they gave the starters made the overtime Hopkinton's.

Jason Dlugolecki, Moberg and Will Relle took turns leaning on Laymen. Moberg hopped off the court after a Laymen drive to the basket. Relle finished the third quarter on the bench with a bloody nose.

But Hopkinton finished the third quarter ahead. The Hopkinton fans were going nuts, to use a technical term. As the roaring increased, shoulders and chins slumped on the King Philip players.

Then KP put themselves back in the game. Their fans came back to life. The teams traded leads back and forth like a tennis match until tied at the end, the ref called a foul on Doucette with no time left. That meant King Philip at the line shooting to win.

After an interpretive dance by Hopkinton coach Keane and a discussion among the officials, the refs agreed the foul had come after the buzzer.

The King Philip players stopped celebrating. The Hopkinton players and fans resumed breathing.

In the overtime, Hopkinton, which had been racheting the defense since the first quarter, tightened it more.

King Philip had the horses to close, but the horses were tired. On the Hopkinton side, the starters were as fresh as - better than - before the national anthem.

Speaking of the national anthem, the Hopkinton student body did a beautiful thing before the girls game.

As the crowd waited for the anthem to start. And waited. And waited. The students thought it was getting ridiculous, so they sang the anthem. The whole gym joined in until the end, which, if you remember, is the home of the brave.