Dreamِ Maidenِ and City

Scituate shuts down Watertown, advances to state finals

The Scituate High School boys basketball team has been cast as the favorite throughout the regular season. But today, however, the Sailors found themselves in the unfamiliar role of underdogs in the Div. 3 state semifinals against Watertown.

It didn’t matter. Scituate rallied in the fourth quarter to earn a 56-46 win over the defending state champion at TD BankNorth Garden and berth in the state finals.

After Watertown reeled off four straight 3-pointers to begin the third quarter, Scituate switched up its defense and held the Raiders without a single field goal for the game’s final 11 minutes.

“We got our legs back when that happened,” coach Matt Poirier said. “We haven’t spent a bunch of time on that (defense), but these kids have a really good basketball IQ. It feels very good.”

The Sailors’ primary objective going into the game was shutting down Watertown’s Kyle and Cory Stockmal, who lead their team in scoring and are considered two of the top pure shooters in the state. Kyle scored 16, including 10 points during Watertown’s 14-2 run to open the third quarter, but did not tally a single point after. Cory finished with 11 points, but just three in the second half.

Once again, sophomore guard Rodney Beldo floater with with four minutes remaining gave Scituate the 46-45 lead. The Sailors would not trail again.

Beldo led all scorers with 19 points, while power forward Blaine O’Brien put up 18 points, 10 of which came in the fourth quarter. Sophomore guard Sam Malone scored 11 in the win.

On Saturday, Sciutate will play the winner of the Bromfield-Frontier match-up at the DCU Center in Worcester.

“We’re the first team from Scituate to do it, and we’re looking forward to playing,” Beldo said of the Sailors basketball program’s first ever birth in the state finals.

He then smirked and added, “We want it bad, too.”

Jason Dachman may be reached at jdachman@ledger.com.

Related posts: Patrick, Zafon, Austin newspaper, Admiral william fallon, International women s day cards