Senior Brian McCullough lays it in for any easy two points. (Photos by Lisa Aciukewicz)
The Bromfield boys basketball team’s postseason run came to an end Saturday with a 47-30 loss to Keefe Technical High School in Framingham in the Central Division 3 quarterfinals. Going into the game, Bromfield was ranked ninth while Keefe held the top seed.
Keefe Technical High School, a member of the Central Massachusetts Colonial League, had a season record of 19 and 2, while Bromfield entered the game with a record of 15 and 6.
Bromfield starting junior and one of Bromfield’s top scorers, Trevor Granville, got injured early in the game, which disturbed Bromfield’s offense. Keefe out-scored Bromfield in the first half with 29 points to Bromfield’s 20. In the second half, Keefe continued to have a strong offensive presence, adding 18 points to their score while Bromfield added only 10 points during the third and fourth quarters combined.
Sophomore starter Ryan Kennedy and senior co-captain Sam Shepherd each scored eight points while junior starter Matt Griffin had six points and senior co-captain Brian McCullough finished with four points. Off the bench, junior Kevin Sun and sophomore Ben Veno each scored two points.
Senior Sam Shepherd and his teammates put up a fine defense despite their loss in the quarter-final game.
“Keefe Tech is a very good team, and it didn’t help when one of our leading scorers went down and wasn’t able to return to the game,” Griffin said. “Without [Granville], we couldn’t seem to find enough opportunities to score, so Keefe Tech was able to maintain a constant lead from the beginning, and we were never able to recover.”
“It was a really tough game and ultimately what it came down to was the simple fact that they shot well and we did not,” Kennedy said.
Last year’s boys varsity team lost in the same round of the tournament to the same team.
“Our defense was fine and our strongest aspect of the game as usual. It was the offense that was the problem,” said Coach Tom Hill. “We only made 28 percent of our shots, and with Keefe Tech shooting the way they were, it was hard to keep up. The same thing happened when we lost to them last year.”
With his final season of high school basketball over, McCullough said he is, overall, pleased with his team’s season record of 15 and 7.
“I am very proud of this team. It’s the best team I have ever been on in my four years of varsity,” McCullough said. “Sometimes giving it your all isn’t good enough, but what matters is that we never gave up, and instead we played hard until the end, and that’s all I could ask my teammates for.”
