Hampden Academy senior Zach McLaughlin hit three free throws with 17 seconds to play, and the top-seeded Broncos held on to defeat third-seeded Messalonskee 44-43 in the Class A North championship basketball game at the Augusta Civic Center Friday night.
Hampden (19-2) advances to the state championship game against Gray-New Gloucester at 2:45 p.m. Saturday, March 2 at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland.
Hampden didn’t hold a lead in the game until McLaughlin nailed his third of three free throws with less than 20 seconds to play. That score was all it turned out they’d need. McLaughlin finished with a game-high 24 points.
Merrick Smith was borderline unstoppable for the Eagles (16-5), as he scored a team-high 10 first half points and caused major chaos in the painted area. Smith finished the evening with a team-high 23 points, but the effort came up just short for the junior big man’s side.
The key sequence of the game came in the final minute. Trailing by two points, McLaughlin attempted a 3-pointer on the wing and was fouled with 17.8 seconds to play. He went to the line and sank all three foul shots to put Hampden up by one.
Messalonskee attempted to answer but senior guard Sam Dube’s layup rolled off the rim and forced the Eagles to foul McLaughlin with just over two seconds to play. McLaughlin missed both free throws, but Messalonskee’s attempted buzzer beater from beyond the 3-point line met nothing but air.
Hampden Academy head coach Russ Bartlett sounded relieved post game, saying, “I think we’re fortunate we won that game, you know I think we were outplayed most of the game but the kids showed a lot of fight. No matter what the score was we kept ourselves in it and within a possession or two the entire way.”
When the halftime buzzer sounded, the Broncos were trailing 22-17, but a quick three from Hampden’s junior guard Aiden Kochendoerfer cut the lead to two, and set in motion a chaotic second half. Just when the Eagles would extend their lead on the back of a domineering Merrick Smith finish, McLaughlin and JJ Wolfington made sure to answer for Hampden.
“I said going into the third quarter we needed a championship-caliber quarter and we came out firing,’’ Bartlett said. “I thought we grabbed a little momentum, but we could not keep people in front of us very well tonight.”
Bartlett continued, “We never hung our heads about what the score was and we made a couple plays to keep ourselves in it. We found just enough extra offense outside of JJ and Zach, I think the other three guys each hit a three, and we needed every single one of those.”