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

SCITUATE -- It was Lorenzo Jackson to the rescue again.

This time, though, it was more about quality than quantity.

In last Friday's Division 3 state quarterfinals, Jackson, a 6-5 senior forward from East Bridgewater, had bunched 27 of his team-high 29 points into the second half to lead the Archbishop Williams High boys basketball team to a five-point win over Oakmont.

In Wednesday's semifinals, Jackson went ice cold. When the final buzzer sounded, in fact, he had zero points.

Luckily for him, his left-wing 3-point attempt was still in the air just then.

It swished through, giving the top-seeded Bishops a heart-stopping 65-62 win over Catholic Central League rival Cardinal Spellman. Archies (23-1) will play No. 2 St. Mary's-Lynn (19-7), the defending state champ, in Saturday's Div. 3 state final (2 p.m. at Tsongas Center in Lowell).

Can't wait to see what kind of heroics Jackson has lined up for that one.

"I was right underneath the hoop," said Williams senior forward Josh Campbell, who had a game-high 22 points. "As soon as he shot it I was like, 'That's going in! That's going in!' He had it in him. He came up big at the end when it was most important. I was ready for overtime if it had to go into overtime, but Lorenzo said it didn't need to. Great shot."

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Archies hadn't trailed since the midway point of the first quarter, but No. 4 Spellman (18-5) staged a dramatic fourth-quarter rally to grab a 61-60 lead with just over a minute left. After an exchange of free throws knotted the score at 62-all, Williams inbounded in front of its own bench with 16 seconds left.

Sophomore guard Julian Sustache nearly dribbled out the time on the right wing looking for a teammate while closely guarded by Spellman's Matt O'Donnell. Sustache finally drove the lane and spotted Jackson to his left.

"We drew up a play," Jackson said. "Spellman did a great job, they played great defense and took it away. Juju (Sustache) drove and kicked it out. I'm right there on the wing and I just hit the shot. It was a good job by everyone -- all my teammates. Also Cardinal Spellman, they played amazing."

Jackson, who had 18 points and 12 rebounds in a Round-of-16 conquest of Seekonk, describes himself as a "streaky 3-point shooter but pretty good."

Apparently.

"He can shoot," Bishops coach Brian Holden said. "Even with his size he's got good touch. He just probably doesn't shoot it enough, to be honest with you."

Jackson's empty scoreline had a lot to do with fouls. He picked up his fourth in the closing seconds of the third quarter and didn't step back onto the court until the final minute.

"I just couldn't seem to get it going," he said of his offensive struggles. "They were playing good defense on me. I was like, 'All right, I guess I'm not scoring so I'll play some defense.' But that didn't work; I had some fouls. Coach put me in with one minute left in the game and I played as hard as I could.

"When I let (the last shot) go, it looked good. I was like, 'It'll make for a really good picture if I celebrate right now.' And it went in, thank God."

Said Spellman coach Mike Perry: "Forty (Jackson's uniform number), when he gets the time, he can shoot. We came off him a little too far (to try to stop Sustache's drive). Credit to him, he made the shot."

Turning point

Williams had swept the regular-season series against Spellman, winning big each time -- 70-40 in Brockton on Dec. 21 and 80-62 in Braintree on Jan. 27. In the first meeting, the Bishops outscored the Cardinals 46-16 in the second half after the game was tied at 24-all at halftime.

It appeared that the third meeting was hurtling toward the same outcome. Archies led 32-29 at intermission in this one and then outscored Spellman 20-8 to begin the third quarter, taking its biggest lead of the game at 52-37 with 2:02 left in the quarter.

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Form there, though, it was pretty much all Spellman until the final minute.

"I did think we took our foot off their neck completely," Jackson said.

After the game the Bishops insisted they knew the Cardinals' surge was coming.

"I expected that," Holden said of the dramatic difference between the regular-season blowouts and this one. "It's a little bit of a mirage when you beat them by 30 and 18. I, as coach, knew that wasn't going to happen again. Coach Perry is too good of a coach and their kids have too much pride to let that happen again. They put on a great performance. We were lucky to get the victory."

Spellman chipped away relentlessly, starting with a 9-1 spurt to begin the fourth quarter that cut the deficit to 54-50. Williams got the lead back up to six on two occasions, but a 3-pointer by junior guard D'Anthony Amado (16 points) made it 60-59 with 2:51 left, and Spellman star Jaydan Exalus (20 points) put back an offensive rebound to give the Cardinals a 61-60 lead with just over a minute left.

Sustache hit two free throws to put Archies back in front, 62-61, with 38.2 seconds left, but Amado hit one of two free throws to knot it again at 62-62 with 23.7 seconds left, setting the stage for Jackson's big shot.

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"We just couldn't hang on," Perry said. "They made the shot at the end. Hey, they deserve to win it. They played better in the last 38 seconds."

Kristian Simpson added 11 points for Spellman. Junior guard Tristan Rodriguez chipped in for Archies with 15, and Andres Espaillat (9) and Charlie Conners (7) also contributed.

"I'm proud of my guys," said Exalus, who had scored his 1,000th career point in a Round-of-16 win over Gloucester. "We fought all year. We didn't get the goal we wanted. It hurts, obviously. That was always the goal we wanted -- we wanted to win the ring. We just came up a shot short. Nothing you can say about that. It's basketball, man."

By the numbers

1,000: Campbell scored his 1,000th career point sometime in the third quarter. The PA announcer let the crowd know after the quarter was over.

"It means a lot to me," said Campbell, who lives in Plymouth. "It feels great to pass 1,000 points. I thank my teammates for always moving the ball and finding me when I'm open. They give me great opportunities every game. It felt great and it felt even better to win."

Said Holden: "For him to get his 1,000^th and get a victory to propel us to the state final, it probably can't be a better day for him."

6: Points scored by Spellman junior center Marvin Petit-Frere. All of them came in the fourth quarter. The big man's muscle inside helped turn the tide in the Cardinals' favor for a while.

"He's going to have a great future," Exalus predicted. "Him and D'Anthony (Amado). Those two, watch out for them next year, they're going to be good."

3: Catholic Central League teams that made it to the Div. 3 state semis. On the other side of the bracket, CCL member St. Mary's beat Old Rochester Regional, 56-47, at Quincy High on Wednesday night to advance to the final. Archies won the regular-season matchup with St. Mary's, 78-77 in Lynn on Feb. 3 as Campbell scored the winning layup in the final seconds. The victory gave Archies its first CCL title since 2006.

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Archies boys basketball beats Spellman at buzzer in Div. 3 semifinals