O’Leary’s Overtime Heroics Lift Panthers to Quarterfinals

At 7:00 Monday night the Marlborough High boy’s basketball team entered into what you could politely call a hostile atmosphere. The opening round of the MIAA Division 1 Central playoffs was held at North Middlesex Regional High in Townsend. There was not an empty seat to be found as the tip went up and for the following hour and forty minutes, there was not a moment of silence to be found either.

At precisely 8:40 p.m. it was as if the principal had walked into a noisy first grade classroom. A sharp, piercing silence came over the fans, coaches, and players of the North Middlesex Patriots and Marlborough High Panthers. With 1.2 seconds left in overtime, and his team trailing by one, Conner O’leary, grabbed a teammates missed shot and forced the ball back up on the rim.

After rolling around the orange cylinder for what seemed like an eternity, the buzzer wailed, and the ball fell through the netting, Marlborough had won 57-56. By the time anyone was able to process the event, MHS students had mobbed the court, distributing hugs and chest bumps to their black-clad classmates.

A win for the 10th seeded Panthers over the seventh seeded Patriots meant only one thing in the end: a date with second seeded Saint Peter-Marian, Thursday night at Assumption College, that is when the real fun will begin.

In a game that went back and forth too many times to count, Marlborough was able to make two key shots down the stretch to pull out the win. The second, was obviously O’Leary’s put back at the buzzer. However without the first clutch basket, that would have never been possible.

With just under eight seconds to go in regulation, Marlborough trailed 49-47 when they ran a isolation play on the right side for leading scorer Spencer Little (19 pts). Little juked his man left, crossed over and created some separation before lifting straight up and releasing a beautiful jumper that sailed through the net with 1.2 seconds remaining, knotting the teams up at 49 and forcing the extra period.

After trailing by ten through one quarter, Marlborough was able to turn the tables by using something Head Coach Ilya Nicholas’ teams have seldom been accused of; suffocating defense. After allowing the Patriots 21 points in the opening quarter, MHS solidified on defense and entered the intermission trailing only 27-25.

They held North Middlesex to just six and nine points total in the second and third quarters, respectively. Marlborough’s starting five walked onto the court for the fourth quarter with a 40-36 lead. Turnovers were a major detriment to the Panther’s success, as four straight led to easy transition baskets by the Patriots and North Middlesex was able to regain a lead midway through the quarter. From there the teams traded hoops until Little’s final jumper.

Mike Turpac scored five of his 13 points in the fourth, including a crucial and-one to help force the overtime. O’leary finished with eight, three of which came in the extra four minutes.

Nick De La Cruz had a steady 10 points, Anton Beauchamp chipped in five to go along with some stellar defense and a couple flashy assists. Depth was added off the bench by Jacques Pierre (2 pts) and Jake Goulet, while John Perry gave MHS some much needed rebounding help down low. Kyle McDermott had 14 points for the host Patriots.

Marlborough (12-9) advances to the D1 Central Quarterfinals and will play St. Peter Marian (17-3) on Thursday, March 1st at 7 p.m. at Assumption College in Worcester.

Follow @3rdStringWalsh on Twitter for live updates or check back to Marlborough Patch for the game story Friday morning.