Campbell (34 points) leads Archbishop Williams High boys basketball to first state title

LOWELL – What's an Archbishop Williams High boys basketball playoff game without some late, edge-of-your-seat drama?

Actually, the Bishops spent most of Saturday afternoon teasing us with the idea of a wire-to-wire blowout in the Division 3 state championship game at Tsongas Center. Matched up against defending state champ St. Mary's (Lynn), a Catholic Central League rival it had beaten by a single point in their lone regular-season meeting, Archies raced out to a 10-point first quarter lead, took a 12-point advantage (31-19) into halftime and inflated that number to 22 on several occasions in the third quarter.

Then the roof started to cave in.

No matter, though.

The Bishops did what they always did on this magical playoff run. They dug down and did whatever it took to finish the job.

With Josh Campbell scoring 12 of his game-high 34 points in the fourth quarter, the top-seeded Bishops held off a the Spartans' furious late rally to win the program's first-ever state championship, 76-71.

"It feels fantastic to know that we're always going to be (a big) part of this school because of this win," said Campbell, a 6-foot-4 senior forward from Plymouth.

"I've been here for six years," said Charlie Conners, a senior point guard from Dorchester. "I've been through the ups and downs of Archies basketball. To go out on top is all I ever wanted. To do it with these guys is just the best."

More:25 South Shore players to watch at the high school hockey championships at TD Garden

Going into the game, Archies thought it was bidding for its second state crown. A closer check of the MIAA records, however, revealed that the Bishops had lost their only previous state-final appearance, 72-60 to Brockton in the Class A title game in 1954. In case you were wondering how things were going back then, Elvis Presley had yet to have a hit record and Jackie Robinson was still playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

So, yeah, it had been a while since the Archies boys had been on the biggest stage. (Contrast that with the girls program, which has won seven state crowns, most recently in 2018.)

"When I got the job five years ago at Archies, it was a goal of ours to win a state championship within four or five years," coach Brian Holden said. "I don't know how realistic I was in thinking that, but every year we've gotten a little bit better in regards to wins and losses. And I've been very, very fortunate – we've had three, four, five kids who have transferred in out of nowhere. I've been lucky. The timing of everyone (coming to Archies) and how they've mixed and meshed together in their camaraderie has been incredibly awesome. Obviously, to finish it with a state championship is incredible."

Battle-tested by playoffs

The win capped a gritty five-game playoff run for Archbishop Williams, which beat No. 33 Rockland by 7 points in the first round, topped No. 16 Seekonk by 10 in the Round of 16, survived No. 8 Oakmont's upset bid in the quarterfinals, 88-83, and then needed Lorenzo Jackson's 3-pointer at the buzzer to eliminate No. 4 Cardinal Spellman, 65-62, in the semifinals.

The Bishops' had a big second-half lead late against Spellman, then fell behind by a point with just over a minute left before escaping.

More:Lorenzo calls game: Buzzer-beater lifts Archies boys hoops past Spellman and into D3 final

"It's funny. Every game we played this year, at the end I was like, 'How good are we? I don't know how good we are,'" Holden said. "Then you beat a team like St. Mary's during the season and you beat Burke and you think, 'Maybe we are pretty good.' We had such a great run (in the regular season) and were beating teams by a good margin of victory and then you get in the state tournament and teams gave us their best shot. When you're 19-1 (going into the playoffs) and you're ranked No. 1 in your division, Rockland, Seekonk, Oakmont, they all gave us their best shot. Now I can turn around and say, 'Man, we are pretty good.'

"I questioned our toughness a little bit in the beginning of the year. Can't question that anymore. We're a tough, gritty, hard-nosed team that ended up winning it."

Said Campbell: "It was to our benefit that we were in a dogfight every single night. We knew it was going to be a dogfight today, even when we up by 20, because it had been (difficult) the last four games. It definitely prepared us well."

Turning point

Archies never trailed in this one after racing out to a 14-4 lead. But the second-seeded Spartans (19-8) would not give up the crown easily. Suddenly finding the 3-point shooting touch that had abandoned them for the first 24 minutes, the defending champs got within 5 points with just under two minutes left and were down 4 (75-71) with 27.4 seconds remaining after David Brown Jr. (team-high 22 points) scored on a drive.

Brown had 13 points in the fourth quarter.

"We knew he was going to light up at some point," Campbell said. "We knew he was going to go on a run. He always does. He's a great player, great shooter. We just had to roll with it and not let it get in our heads and keep playing."

Brendan Foster hit one of two free throws with 26.3 seconds left, and St. Mary's, which was out of timeouts by that point, couldn't get multiple shot attempts to fall on its final possession.

"They weren't going to give up," Holden said of the Spartans, who had won nine straight playoff games, including last year's 71-40 state-final beatdown of Watertown. "I knew it wasn't over until the buzzer. Give my kids a lot of credit, man. We might not make the best decisions at times and we might not play poised at times, but when it came down to crunch time they got the job done. I'm very proud of them."

Jackson, of East Bridgewater, scored 16 points for Archies. Andres Espaillat, a junior guard from East Bridgewater, added 7 points, and Tristan Rodriguez chipped in with 5 points.

Martinez and Anthony D'Itria each had 12 points for St. Mary's, and Omri Merryman added 11.

By the numbers

3: Free throws by Foster in the final minute. He hit both attempts to put Archies up 74-67 with 50 seconds left, then hit one of two for the final score with 26.3 remaining. It was a nice capper to a senior season that started late after he broke his wrist in the Thanksgiving football game.

"It was just gut-wrenching," Holden said. "He didn't get cleared to play until our St. Mary's game in February (a 78-77 regular-season win on Feb. 3). Brendan's been playing a little bit of catch-up in regards to conditioning. I felt very confident in putting him in and sending him to the line. He's a great shooter. He did a great job knocking down some big free throws."

"Not playing the whole year has been hard," Foster said. "It's been difficult to watch my team play without me. But coming back (in time) and hitting those free throws in the clutch, playing team ball, winning for the team, it's fun. I was nervous at first, but I knew I could shoot it. I felt confident when I got to the line."

6: Number of 3-pointers that St. Mary's hit in the fourth quarter. The Spartans managed only two over the first three quarters.

34: Points for St. Mary's in the fourth quarter. Even with that explosion, the Spartans finished with their second-lowest total in their five-game playoff run. "They're difficult to guard," Holden said, "and we stepped up the challenge tonight."

27.2: Campbell's scoring average across five playoff games. During the regular season he hit for 50 against Burke in a double-OT win and dropped 44 on Weymouth. In the fourth quarter of this one he had three baskets and was 6-of-6 on free throws.

"He's a beast," Conners said. "Get it to him in the paint and he'll do whatever he wants." Said Holden: "For two years he's been such a special player in our program."

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Archbishop Williams High boys basketball defeats St. Mary's