The Bromfield boy’s basketball team proudly raises their trophy after winning the Central Mass. Division 3 title. Left to right: Hugo Al-Homsi, Ben Brown, Connor Kempton, Josh Lyvers, Sam Peisch, and Brian Morgan. (Photos by Ellen Harasimowicz)
Bromfield basketball coach Charlie Noonan and junior guard Hugo Al-Homsi, right, react to a comment made by Connor Kempton, left.
Hugo Al-Homsi faced some tough defense from Frontier’s Jamie Bell, right, and Brennan McKenna.
Bromfield’s Ben Brown, Caleb Frost, and Connor Kempton show their disappointment as the final seconds tick off the clock in the MIAA Boys Basketball State Semi-finals at the Mullins Center at UMass.
Winning is nothing new for coach Charlie Noonan and the Bromfield boys basketball team. They won seven straight prior to Saturday’s contest against Sutton. What is new, however, is the division championship they earned, winning the game 59–45; the last time was in 2003.
Hundreds of Trojan fans stood cheering as coaches hugged players and players lifted coaches into the air. Assistant Principal and last year’s coach Scott Hoffman presented the trophy in a center-court ceremony to captains Ben Brown, Josh Lyvers, and Brian Morgan. The boys then handed it to Noonan.
Noonan embraced Hoffman, then lifted the trophy high toward the roaring crowd of blue-and-white painted faces, each of which helped in some small way to win that trophy.
Bromfield’s Morgan opened the scoring with a three-pointer, and Sutton answered quickly with a layup. But the Trojans, fueled by two steals from Hugo Al-Homsi and one from Lyvers, widened the lead to 15–4. Two Sutton three-pointers closed the gap, and the quarter ended with Bromfield up 18–13.
Bromfield had trouble making shots in the second quarter, and Sutton hit two more three-pointers to go up 23–20. Al-Homsi nailed two free throws at 1:45, pulling Bromfield within one, but the Trojans continued having trouble sinking field goals. Any hope they had of taking a lead into the locker room was dashed by Sutton’s Stefan Forsberg with 10 seconds left. He jumped from near the foul line, underhanded the ball, and swished it for two points. The half ended with Sutton up 25–22.
The teams traded two-pointers to open the third quarter. Al-Homsi hit a three-pointer to tie it at 27, and then the captains took over. Brown passed it to Lyvers down low, who laid it in to put Bromfield up 29–27. Sutton answered with a pair of foul shots; Lyvers hit a jumper to put Bromfield up by two again. Then Brown stole the ball, hit Morgan with a long pass, and Morgan hit a three-pointer to make it 34-29 Trojans.
Bromfield outscored Sutton 22–11 in the third quarter, and wound up leading 44–36. Noonan said, “It’s usually our opponents who run away in the third quarter.” Maynard had outscored Bromfield 16–8 in the third quarter of Wednesday’s semi-final, so Noonan called Saturday’s reversal “a nice surprise.”
Sutton players worked hard in the fourth quarter, but never got closer than nine points. Their only lapse was forgetting about Connor Kempton twice, leaving him wide open under the basket for easy layups.
The win moved the Trojans on to the state semi-finals at UMass Amherst on Tuesday, where they faced South Deerfield’s Frontier Regional. But after a season of hard-won victories, the Trojans suffered a heartbreaking loss to the Red Hawks, 45–61.
