THE PERFECT ENCORE: North repeats as Division 1 state champs to cap 24-0 season

LOWELL — The North High boys’ basketball team found itself in an unfamiliar situation, trailing by a substantial margin for the first time this season.

So when the never-panic Polar Bears emerged from a timeout down eight points ‒ the deficit once stood at 12 ‒ with 3:42 left in the third quarter of their Division 1 state championship game with Franklin, junior Khari Bryan issued a passionate, “Let’s go!” and pulled his teammates together near midcourt.

“I felt we were a little flat and the game was getting out of our reach, so I brought everybody together,” Bryan said.

Then senior co-captain and spiritual leader Joe Okla tapped his right index finger on his temple, the international sign for playing smart and using your head.

“What I said to them was, ‘We have to play defense like we’re crazy because (Franklin) thought we were playing soft,” Okla recalled. “And when we played hard defense, pressure defense, they didn’t know what to do with the ball.”

Thus inspired, the Polar Bears combined a turnover-producing, 1-2-2 press with an all-around terrific fourth quarter from junior guard Amir Jenkins to go on a 23-7 run to take an eight-point lead with 3:10 to play before securing a 59-53 victory on Sunday night before an estimated crowd of 5,000 at the Tsongas Center.

It was the second consecutive state title and 45^th straight win for the top-seeded Polar Bears, who finished 24-0. The third-seeded Panthers, who came in riding a 21-game winning streak, finished 25-2.

“It sounds awesome,” coach Al Pettway said, only slightly drenched from a water-bucket shower that wasn’t a direct hit as he entered the locker room, of being a back-to-back state champion.

“It feels great and I’m just going to enjoy it because I always say things like this don’t come around too often. We had an opportunity to capture it and you got to get it because you may never see it again.”

This title was heaven sent as the the Polar Bears dedicated the season to former teammate Carl-Hens Beliard.

The lone senior on last year’s championship squad, the 18-year-old Beliard matriculated to Salem State to continue his basketball and academic careers before dying from gunshot wounds Nov. 1.

“It’s a great feeling to know we did this for Carl,” senior co-captain Teshaun Steele said. “This whole season was dedicated to you. We love you bro and everything is for you bro.”

Jenkins seconded the emotion.

“We’re doing it for more than us, so it felt great,” he said.

The Polar Bears led by three after one, trailed by seven at halftime and found themselves down, 44-41, entering the fourth as they closed the third with an 8-2 burst with Okla (14 points, 14 rebounds), Steele (17, 6, 2 dunks in 32 minutes) and Jenkins providing the offense.

Jenkins, with aggressive drives and acrobatic finishes that either resulted in baskets or trips to the foul line, then amped it up at both ends. He scored 10 of his team-high 19 points in the fourth and gave the Polar Bears a 47-45 lead on a fastbreak layup a steal-and-assist by Okla with 5:55 to play.

It’s a lead they didn't relinquish.

“I do things to help my team win and that there was a version of it,” said Jenkins, who added 5 rebounds, 6 assists and 4 steals to his stat line and played the entire game with the exception of a couple of minutes in the fourth after buckling his knee.

“I was able to get more layups. In the first half they were double-teaming me off screens, so I was able to get to the hoop and finish it.”

Bryan was equally versatile, contributing 6 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, and a steal while sophomore guard Nalajah Christopher and freshman guard Keyshon Joyner provided quality minutes off the bench.

Defensively, the Polar Bears held the Panthers, who committed nine turnovers in the second half, to seven points ‒ not counting a meaningless basket at the buzzer ‒ over the final eight minutes.

Their 53 points were one off their season low.

“We’ve been here before,” Okla said. “We know we can’t panic. You can’t panic in situations like this.

“You have to come together as a team and stay focused. We know our goal was to win the game, and that’s what we did.”

The win was not only for Beliard, but for the North community ‒ which turned out en masse ‒ and the city of Worcester, which is still grieving over the shooting deaths of Chasity Nuñez and her 11-year-old daughter, Zella, on March 5.

“Our community, our city, our world is going through a lot,” Pettway said. “So at least for our community of Worcester we have something to be joyful for tonight. We’ve had a lot of trauma going on in the city, so for these guys to come out and do what they did tonight speaks volumes.

“And we dedicated our season to Carl. All year long everything was about him. And in the huddle they kept saying, ‘No. 20. Carl on three.’ ”

And while it wasn’t as easy as 1-2-3, the Polar Bears are once again state champions. So cue up the Beantown Betty duck boat.

—Contact Rich Garven at rgarven@telegram.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @RichGarvenTG.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: North High caps 24-0 season with second Division 1 state title