NASHUA, NH – Entering the Division-I tournament as the No. 12 seed, expectations may have been understandably low for the Manchester Memorial High School boys basketball team from the outside looking in.
Inside the Crusaders’ locker room, however, head coach Danny Bryson was fully aware of his young team’s potential.
And so were Memorial’s opponents.
Competing Wednesday night at fifth-ranked Bishop Guertin (14-4) – which had won 12 of 13 games entering the postseason – the 8-10 Crusaders looked every bit the part of the road warriors they proved to be last year when they pulled off a first-round upset of Alvirne on the road.
This time, however, Memorial’s upset bid fell just short, 45-41.
“They’re a really good 12-seed,” said BG’s leading scorer, Connor McGowan. “In my opinion, (Memorial) should realistically be a top-seven team. They’re probably the most athletic team we’ve played all year, and we knew it was going to be a dog fight coming into this one.”
“They have the athletes,” said Guertin head coach Will Horne. “If somebody is just as fast (as our guys) and you can’t get to your spot as easily, it’s going to be tough, and they do a great job of just game-planning and putting their guys in the right position.”
BG sprinted out of the gate to an early 16-8 lead and then headed to halftime with a 22-15 advantage, but the Crusaders charged back in the second half, scoring 16 points in the third to narrow the gap to three entering the final frame.
There, the teams battled back and forth, with the hosts maintaining a narrow margin, which slipped to one point in the final minute, but a late uncontested layup on an inbound play, followed by a couple Memorial near misses solidified the loss.
“We knew we were going to win on defense, so we tried to get them to score 10 or less every quarter, and we were pretty close to that,” said McGowan.
The game was, indeed, a defensive battle from start to finish, with Memorial holding the Cardinals to a season-low point total and no three-pointers, whole limiting McGowan to 16.
“I knew I wasn’t going to score a lot because the first time I played Memorial, it was my lowest scoring game of the season,” said McGowan. “Ewa (Odokpolpo), who guarded me, is probably the best defender I’ve played all year.”
Memorial’s own standout, Eldan Taric provided the visitors with 13 points, but the Cardinals didn’t allow another player to reach double digits.
“The game plan worked, defensively, and each quarter we got back into it. We won a lot of our matchups, but we just didn’t finish, and that’s part of the game of basketball,” said Bryson. “We also missed some key free throws and lost a lot of 50/50 balls, especially on long rebounds, which really hurt us, giving up some of those second chances.”
Though the longtime Memorial mentor admitted the season-ending loss was tough, he was quick to note that this year’s unit was almost completely new compared to last year’s team, which meant his players were able to establish their own identity this campaign.
“This is a gritty group,” said Bryson. “We’ve grown a lot over the last few weeks, and everyone’s coming back. You know, we had a sophomore and four juniors (in the starting lineup) and no seniors out there today, so was a great experience for them and something to build off for next year.”
