How Cumberland's late spurt held off an early boys hoops playoff upset vs. Mount Pleasant
CUMBERLAND — The Cumberland boys basketball team saw its 12-point lead wilt away.
The Clippers went cold for five minutes in the fourth quarter and that helped Mount Pleasant, which was seeking an upset in the Division I play-in round. But Clipper bench boss Gary Reedy and Cumberland had other plans. Cumberland executed when it mattered most, and punched its ticket to the quarterfinal round.
Trailing for the first time, Joe Parenteau curled around the defense for a right-handed finish at the rim. Then Connor Allard dotted an assist to Hunter Zancan on the left block for an easy score behind the 2-3 zone. Zancan followed, cutting through the lane, with the defense collapsing for a kickout to Benjamin Jahnz in the right corner for a triple.
The quick spurt, all coming with under 2:30 remaining in regulation, sent the Kilties packing after the near comeback fell short, 53-45, on Friday night. The sixth-seeded Clippers travel to La Salle on Monday for a 6 p.m. tip.
“To know that we can come back from the momentum change, stay together as a team and ultimately come out with a gritty win, that's going to help us against La Salle,” Parenteau said. “They're a very good team and there are going to be rough patches in that game where they go on big runs, too. [Tonight] shows that we're going to stay together as a team and keep fighting to the end.”
The play from Zancan, who finished with a game-high 21 points (9-for-9 from the free-throw line), to Jahnz is coined, “Slice and dice” by Reedy. It gives the big man two options against the zone: If the defense collapses, he passes out. If they race to the corner, he keeps and attacks the rim.
Zancan helped build the advantage, which stood at 38-26 entering the fourth quarter, with aggressive play in the paint. He had 13 at the break but was held silent in the third quarter as the Clippers managed only eight points in the frame. No. 11 Mount Pleasant tripped up Cumberland with full-court pressure while employing a guard-heavy rotation.
“They were very physical, they were hawking the ball everywhere, they weren't letting up,” Parenteau, who added 11 points, said of Mount Pleasant. “They were playing very hard and good defense, so it gave us a little bit of a tough time and we should have gotten to the open spaces more.”
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Trailing 40-29 early in the fourth stanza, Ben Mordan jumped-started the run with a turnaround finish in the lane. Off the make, the Kilties fell into their press and Carlos Alvarez-Cabrera came away with a turnover at midcourt and flipped to Mekai Brimage for a 3.
That turned the deficit into a two-possession contest and before Cumberland could break the pressure, Alvarez-Cabrera snagged a loose ball and Jaylin Robertson finished off the sequence with an easy layup to trail 40-36 with 6:02 to play.
“One thing that they are is resilient; they don't ever give up,” Mount Pleasant coach Charles Holliday said.
Robertson, who had a team-high 15 points, added Mount Pleasant’s third 3-pointer of the frame, a straightaway shot, to pull the Kilties within one. But Zancan halted Cumberland’s scoring drought with a step-through floater off a pump fake on the wing with 3:35 left in regulation.
The Kilties added two at the line, before Alvarez-Cabrera (13 points) gave Mount Pleasant its first lead of the game on a right-handed scoop layup in traffic with 2:55 left.
“I've been playing against [Reedy] for [a long time],” Holliday said. “Him and I are one of the oldest coaches still going in the state and he kind of knows me a little bit and I know him a little bit. I knew that they wanted to punch it down low to their big Zancan.”
After Alvarez-Cabrera’s basket, Cumberland shut the door on the comeback with the 7-0 spurt starting with Parenteau’s hoop.
“Figuring out the press got us going and our plays got us going,” Zancan said. “And everyone really came together to win it at the end.”
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Despite the loss, Mount Pleasant's future looks bright. It isn’t graduating anyone from this year’s roster. All 12 juniors should return next winter, setting the stage for a potentially exciting season.
“A lot of it is mental with them, so in the offseason, they know what they have to do,” Holliday said. “We have to get guys in the gym and we have to get stronger. And then we come back with everybody that's here tonight.”
jrousseau@providencejournal.com
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This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Cumberland boys basketball denies Mount Pleasant's early playoff upset
