TAUNTON, Mass. – Despite being the higher ranked team, Taunton knew that they had a tough draw in Brookline for the opening round of the Division 1 South tournament, and the Warriors were able to pull off the upset in double overtime.
The energy in the building translated into the play of both teams early on, as baskets and turnovers led to a sloppy but exciting opening quarter. Taunton’s Gerald Cortijo scored eight points in the first while Obi Obiora had 6 for Brookline, and the Tigers carried a slim 17-16 lead into the second.
Cotijo continued his hot shooting in the second, scoring another eight points and defending Brookline point guard Elijah Rogers very well. Jack Moyer came off the bench for the Warriors and knocked down 11 points in the second quarter, and Brookline held a 39-30 advantage at halftime.
Taunton came back very quickly in the second half, though, and Cortijo was at the center of the action once again. He and Corey Green added six points each in the third quarter, as Taunton finished the quarter on an 11-2 run and regained a 51-48 lead.
The fourth quarter was once again played very evenly. Cortijo and Green continued to spark Taunton, while Rogers and Obiora led a Brookline comeback. The two teams could not decide a winner after 32 minutes, though, and the game went into overtime.
As was the case in regulation, Cortijo and Rogers led their teams in the first overtime period. Rogers scored nine of Braintree’s 10 points in the period, while Cortijo added four more for Taunton. In a tie game late in the overtime, Rogers drew a foul as he drove to the basket and got the shot to fall. Rogers converted the three-point play to give Brookline a 74-71 lead with under a minute left. After a few free throws by each team made the score 75-72, Taunton came up the floor, the ball found the hands of Truly Kenku, and he knocked down a three pointer as time expired. The points were Kenku’s eighth of the night, and Taunton and Brookline would need double overtime to decide a winner.
The Tigers were unable to pull off any more magic in the second overtime, though, as Rogers sealed the win for Brookline. He hit two free throws late in the period that gave Brookline a 84-82 lead, and this time, Taunton could not come back.
“It’s a cliché but they made one more play than we did,” Taunton head coach Charlie Dacey said. “We knew Rogers was what he was, and they got the ball in his hands and he made the play that mattered in the very end. We came down the other end and didn’t make a play.”
After Taunton was blown out by Mansfield earlier in the season, Dacey said that his team was not tournament ready. Tonight, however, his opinion changed.
“You couldn’t ask them to play harder,” Dacey said. “At the very end of the game, things got hectic and we were drawing up stuff on the sideline like crazy. The execution was not where we wanted it to be. We liked our guard matchups. We always thought that we had one mismatch and that’s what we were trying to do with the three-out that we were running.”
Taunton needed Gerald Cortijo to step up in this game, and he led all scorers with 32 points.
“He’s at the top of his game,” Dacey said. “At various times this year, he’s done that. Obviously he’s a tournament kid and he raised his level of performance come tournament time. You hope to have that out of two, maybe three people, and then you’re on the wave. He certainly raised his level.”
Despite the early exit from the tournament, Dacey and the coaching staff were pleased with the team’s effort in the game.
“We were proud of them,” Dacey said. “They represented Taunton High well, they represented the coaching staff well, and they represented themselves well. No one likes to lose a game like that but when you fight and claw for forty minutes, we were proud of them.”
Taunton was eliminated from the state tournament with the loss, and Brookline will now continue their tournament run on Friday when they travel to Mansfield to face the Hornets.
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