ITEM FILE PHOTO
Patrick Bugler scored 17 points for Marblehead in Saturday’s loss.
By STEVE FREKER
MARBLEHEAD — At this time of the year, the “play-of -the game” designation gets an automatic upgrade to the first-class cabin.
That’s why Malden Catholic senior guard Curt Philpot’s late-game steal on a Marblehead drive to the basket goes right to the top of the play-of-the-year” list, as it was the signature moment in the Lancers’ 46-43 upset win over the No. 2-seeded Magicians in the MIAA Division 2 North boys basketball quarterfinal.
Chasing a one-point deficit (44-43) with under 25 seconds left, Marblehead’s Derek Marino got a long rebound off a Lancer miss and led a 2-on-1 fast break to the Magicians’ hoop with a chance to go ahead, maybe for good. Philpot had other ideas.
As Marino made a slight move to his right, Philpot held his ground, deftly stripped the ball free, and held on like a safety squeezing an interception as Malden Catholic called timeout with 20.4 seconds left on the clock.
When play resumed, Philpot was fouled and drilled both ends of a 1-and-1 and the Lancers went up, 46-43. MC’s defense then dug in and saw two Magician 3-point attempts miss in the waning seconds.
“I knew I wasn’t going to block (Marino’s) shot, so I slowed down, waited to see if he would expose the ball and I stripped it,” Philpot said.”Then I just held on tight. We weren’t going to see our season end tonight. No way.”
The No.10 Lancers (15-7) advance to take on No. 3 Lynn Classical (20-3) in the sectional semifinal at Burlington High Tuesday (7).
With the upset loss No. 2 Marblehead’s (20-2) season ends on a night that saw the Magicians fight to the end.
“We executed a lot better in the second half and we made a tremendous comeback against a very tough team,” said Marblehead head coach Mike Giardi, whose team fell behind 29-15 at halftime. Game-high scorer Patrick Bugler heated up with 14 of his game-high 17 points in the second half. “We just came up a bit short, It just didn’t happen for us.”
Defensive heroics were fitting on a night when offense ran away and hid at times for both teams. On the coldest night of the year outside, Marblehead was equally icy in the first half, as the visiting Lancers hit buzzer-beating shots at the end of each of the first two quarters. The deep freeze hit the Lancers in half No. 2 as they were even frostier, but they held on with defense.
“I’m very proud of our guys. Philpot made the play of the year and (Mike) Boyd and (Cam) Kelly made some big baskets when the shots weren’t falling so easily in the second half,” said Lancer head coach Jim McCune.
