Friday, February 27, 1998
By John McGuirk
Correspondent
Fitchburg 78 Marlboro 72
FITCHBURG-- The Marlboro
boys' basketball team went into last night's Central Mass. Division 1 quarterfinal
against Fitchburg with a nothing-to-lose attitude.
The 10th-seeded Panthers played the No.
2 Red Raiders down to the wire, but Fitchburg had a little bit more in
its arsenal and came away with a thrilling 78-72 victory.
Fitchburg (17-3) will face Holy Name
Sunday at a time to be determined at WPI. Marlboro finishes 10-11.
Fitchburg was without the services of
6-foot-8 center Keith Leavitt, who suffered a back injury on Wednesday.
His status for Sunday remains questionable.
“I knew we were in trouble when Keith
told me he wouldn't be able to play tonight,” Fitchburg coach Doug Grutchfield
said. “But I think it was good because the other kids came up big.”
The outcome of this one wasn't decided
until the final two minutes. Leading 68-67, Matt Creamer came up with the
biggest play of the night as he rebounded a Gio Graciano missed free throw
and put it in, giving the Red Raiders a three-point lead with 2:38 to go.
Moments later, Mark Gabriel, Graciano
and Creamer converted 4 of 6 free throws to make it 74-67 with 1:36 showing.
That spurt proved to be the final nail in Marlboro's coffin.
“I thought our kids showed a lot of heart
in those last couple of minutes,” Grutchfield said. “I'm happy for these
kids. We're going back to WPI and that's a tribute to them and how hard
they work. When you get into these tournament games, you've got to be able
to win close games so maybe this will help us.”
Creamer, a senior, led the Red Raiders
with a game-high 20 points and 13 rebounds. Jon Gauvin added 11. Graciano
and Gabriel each finished with 10 apiece.
The Panthers were led by Nick Stewart's
18 points. Joe Stupik followed with 17. Jay Robbins chipped in with 13
and Albert Knight added 11.
“We came up short and we needed to play
near-perfect,” Marlboro coach Tom Lambert said. “We gave them too many
second shots on the boards. It's the same old story -- when you come to
Fitchburg you've got to play well. I thought we did, but we made a few
critical mistakes at the end that cost us.”
Fitchburg broke an early tie with a 15-2
run highlighted by a pair of Thomas Berjoan buckets to lead 20-7 with 9:20
before the break. However, the Panthers stormed back a few minutes later.
A pair of Red Raider turnovers helped spark a Marlboro 11-2 run to climb
to within four, 24-20, with 6:20 to go.
A Danny Ortiz trey with 2:46 before intermission
gave Fitchburg a 34-26 advantage. However, the Panthers got hot in the
final two minutes, closing out the half with another 11-2 run keyed by
Andy Nawrocki's 3-pointer at the buzzer to send Marlboro into the locker
room trailing 38-37.
“I thought we made Fitchburg earn it,”
Lambert said. “We knew coming into the game that they weren't going to
look at us as a St. John's so we had nothing to lose. I felt as though
the situation was right for us, but Fitchburg is Fitchburg.”