With the regular season coming to a close, a spot in the state tournament and the sole rights to a league championship are on the line
FALL RIVER — With the regular season coming to a close, a spot in the state tournament and the sole rights to a league championship are on the line after Diman beat Westport in a 52-45 boys’ basketball win at home on Wednesday night.
Diman has already qualified for the tourney, but needs to win its Friday night home matchup against Southeastern to be the sole winners of the Mayflower Athletic Conference. If the Bengals lose to Southeastern, they share a three-way tie.
Westport needs to win its final two regular season games to qualify for the postseason. The Wildcats travel to Kingston to take on Sacred Heart on Friday night.
Simply put, the first quarter was sloppy. Entering the final minute, the teams combined for seven points in a 4-3 game. Westport forward Nick Collins hit two shots in the final 30 seconds to bring the Wildcats to an 8-3 lead.
Diman then went on a 12-0 run, keyed by consecutive 3-pointers from Mason Gomes and another 3-pointer from Jordan Brodeur.
"We’ve been living and winning by perimeter shooting,” Diman coach Nick Santos said. “Our starting center (Lyndon Carrerio) has been out with an ankle injury so we’ve had to adjust.”
Westport (8-10) was ice cold offensively up until around the final minute of the half when Nick Collins (24 points) stole a Diman pass and broke away for a layup to follow up a Griffin Lecomte 3-pointer. At the half, the Cats cut the deficit to two, 19-17.
Westport adjusted defensively in the third quarter, limiting the Bengals to just an 11 points, yet still struggled to develop any sort of rhythm on offense. Of the four baskets allowed by the Wildcats, three of them were allowed from 3-point range, including two more from the corner by Brodeur and another from Ryan Motta. The Wildcats managed to keep the one-possession deficit entering the fourth quarter in a 30-27 ballgame.
“I thought Diman made some nice adjustments. Their pressure didn’t really bother us all that much, but they crashed the boards extremely well in both halves. They out rebounded us by a lot, and that can’t happen,” said Westport coach Scot Boudria. “Jordan Brodeur also had a monster of a game, and I really think he was the factor. He had a lot of threes from the corner and that really decided the game. Hats off to Jordan on Senior Night.
Diman (13-6) also dominated Westport on the glass throughout the night, rebounding their way to second and third chances with big men Zach Poitras and Adam Moniz.
The teams battled back and forth throughout the quarter to take and retake the lead from each other. Finally, Diman pulled away in the final five minutes with Moniz and Poitras drawing a succession of shooting fouls to jump to a 43-37 lead entering the final two minutes of play.
“They (Moniz and Poitras) were versatile. We’ve been switching a lot of guards and forwards and found some pretty good matchups towards the end,” Santos said. “Definitely should have taken more advantage of that instead of settling for threes, but it worked out.”
Broduer led the Bengals with 16-points, followed by a 13-point night from Gomes, and 12 points from Moniz.