2012 Clark High School Basketball Tournament

They Said It

View Quotes from the 2011 Tournament

02/26/12
“Every team hits that bump in the road,” senior Joe Reed pragmatically pointed out.
-- Joe Reed, Quabbin Senior

“It's such a great feeling,” Reed said following a joyously bouncy celebration with his teammates on the polished hardwood at Kneller Athletic Center. “Some of us have been playing together since fifth grade and most of us have been together since seventh grade. We're all best of friends and it's been a goal of ours.

“But we're not satisfied. We have our games to play and goals to accomplish.”
-- Joe Reed, Quabbin Senior

“We had our shots, they just didn't go in,” senior Harrison Murphy said, referring to the game-ending drama in which he, sophomore Jurrell Cromwell and juniors Dan Clasby and Matt Phelan futilely and rapidly fired up the ball over the final 10 seconds, desperately trying to regain a lead that had once been double digits.
-- Harrison Murphy, Northbridge Senior

“He's a heck of a ballplayer,” Phelan said after spending most of the night glued to Horton. “He plays as hard as anyone I've faced in my high school career. I was doing my best to keep up with him, but when he made that step-back 3 from six feet beyond the arc, that's tough to defend. All the props to him.”
-- Matt Phelan, Northbridge Junior

“I just kept shooting,” said Horton, who finished with 14 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals (and 5 turnovers) in 32 minutes. “When I started hitting my shots, I was really feeling it.”
-- Christian Horton, Quabbin Senior

“Joe doesn't usually take it to the basket, but he did tonight and hit that pull-up,” coach Dennis Dextradeur said of Reed, who finished with 10 points.
-- Dennis Dextradeur, Quabbin Head Coach

“Being in foul trouble is the worst,” Murphy said after finishing with 8 points, 6 rebounds — half his tournament average — and 3 assists. “It's tough to be sitting on the bench when you're trying to win a championship. And I couldn't play as aggressively as I wanted to when I came back in, so it definitely hurt.”
-- Harrison Murphy, Northbridge Senior

“Going in, we knew we wanted to try to spread them out and get it in to Corey. We felt that’s kind of where we had to attack tonight against this team,” Uxbridge coach Mark Donahue said. “We hit some 3s to kind of keep them honest as well, but Quaboag (is) a terrific team, and we’ve had so many good games over the years.”
-- Mark Donahue, Uxbridge Head Coach

“It feels amazing, it’s unbelievable,” Gomes said. “Coming here this year with this team, we have a different team with a lot of different guys, but we came here with the same mind-set.”
-- Corey Gomes, Uxbridge Senior

“Definitely, last game made him a little more hungry and we knew that,” added junior Mark DeVries, who had 9 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists. “We were really looking for him, but even though he scored, he still kicked it out and got us some great looks. He’s just such a team player. I’m really happy for him.”
-- Mark DeVries, Uxbridge Junior

“I think Thomas came out with that mind-set tonight,” Quaboag coach Chris Reilly said. “Last two seasons, we’ve beaten Uxbridge in the regular season, and Thomas has come out and absolutely lit it up. We started off that way tonight, and I thought, boy, this is a great sign.”
-- Chris Reilly, Quaboag Head Coach

“That gave us momentum going into halftime and some confidence going into the second half,” DeVries said. “It let us play from ahead instead of trying to play catch up.”
-- Mark DeVries, Uxbridge Junior

“They made a run at us in that third period,” Donahue said. “Ken Paulhus with a couple of 3s kind of separated it again for us.”
-- Mark Donahue, Uxbridge Head Coach

“We have a lot of shooters so we can beat you both ways,” Gomes said. “If you want to double down on me it leaves our shooters wide open.”
-- Corey Gomes, Uxbridge Senior

“I’m just so proud of my guys,” DeVries said. “All our seniors on our team really wanted them, and I’m really proud of them because Quaboag is such a tough team. I’m just really happy we got this win.”
-- Mark DeVries, Uxbridge Junior



02/24/12
 “He’s just a tough kid,” Northbridge coach Paul Baker said. “He’s just a competitor.”
-- Paul Baker, Northbridge Head Coach

“We will keep running and try to wear teams down,” Groton-Dunstable coach Keith Woods said. “We got the lead back, but we couldn’t hold it. They had some guys step up and make big shots.”
-- Keith Woods, Groton Dunstable Head Coach

“It’s a great way to celebrate it,” Phelan said (Phelan's 17th birtday was 02/23/12)
-- Matt Phelan, Northbridge Junior

“I’m not used to shooting,” Phelan said. “I don’t think I’m a shooter, but it’s always great to help my team whether it’s with hustle plays or scoring points.”
-- Matt Phelan, Northbridge Junior

“We tried to stop their fast break,” Murphy said, “and our half-court defense played just as well. I think that was the main ingredient for our win.”
-- Harrison Murphy, Northbridge Senior

“It means a lot to win and get to the finals; that’s been our goal since we all started playing together in seventh grade,” senior guard Christian Horton
-- Christian Horton, Quabbin Senior

“We could have put them away a couple of times and we missed our opportunities,” Horton said. “But we expected that (kind of effort) from Shepherd Hill. They’re a very good team.”
-- Christian Horton, Quabbin Senior

“We took him out just to refocus him,” coach Dennis Dextradeur said.
-- Dennis Dextradueur, Quabbin Head Coach

“I was struggling with my shot going back to warm-ups,” Horton said. “I knew I was forcing it a bit, so I just had to calm down and find other ways to help my teammates.”
-- Christian Horton, Quabbin Senior

“It does impact you, you think about it a little,” Reed said of his poor shooting night. “So you try to clear your mind, focus on your mechanics and not think about the pressure. Luckily, the ball went in.”
-- Joe Reed, Quabbin Senior

“I thought we played as well as we could play,” Rams coach Duane Corriveau said. “We didn’t rebound very well in the first half and gave away some points, but we fought back. And Quabbin is a good team, one that plays tenacious defense.”
-- Duane Corriveau, Shepherd Hill Head Coach

“I know I’m not going to get a lot of points, so I know I have to get a lot of rebounds to be successful,” he said. “That’s my role.”
-- Colby Milton, Quabbin Junior

02/22/12
“We were a little stagnant there, and it’s on me to make plays, whether it’s distributing or shooting,” the 6-foot-3 junior guard said after collecting 20 points, 11 rebounds and 4 assists while playing all 36 minutes.
-- Thomas Jankins, Quaboag Junior

“I knew we needed some kind of 3,” Jankins said. “I took a little bit of a step back, and luckily it went in.”
-- Thomas Jankins, Quaboag Junior

“That’s not normal for me,” Lacaire said, estimating he usually makes one or two long balls a game. “But I was wide open. They kind of forgot about me.”
-- Ethan Lacaire, Quaboag Sophomore

“When you get beat by a 30-footer while falling backward, it’s tough to take right now,” coach Tony Paranto said, referencing Jankins’ dagger of a trey.
-- Tony Paranto, Bartlett Head Coach

“The third game is always the hardest,” sophomore sensation Ethan Lacaire said after pouring in a game-high 23 points, 15 of them in the final 12 minutes. “The first two games were both close, so we knew this was going to be more of the same.”
-- Ethan Lacaire, Quaboag Sophomore

“Corey has been our offense all year, but we knew all year in practice that we had a lot of shooters on the team, and tonight we got to show it,” DeVries said. “Tonight it felt like everything was going in.”
-- Mark DeVries, Uxbridge Junior

“By double-teaming me, they left our shooters wide open, and we have a fantastic team,” Gomes said. “Everyone is very talented, and I’m more than happy to dish it out to them and let them make the shot.”
-- Corey Gomes, Uxbridge Senior

“That’s the problem with having a two-headed monster,” Littleton coach Mike Lombard said. “DeVries is a very underrated player, and he has Clark experience, and right at the get-go, we knew we were in trouble.”
-- Mike Lombard, Littleton Head Coach

“I try not to think about how big the free throws are, I just imagine that it’s like any other free throw,” DeVries said. “Luckily I got them to go, and it got us the win. It was nice.”
-- Mark DeVries, Uxbridge Junior

“I try not to think about how big the free throws are, I just imagine that it’s like any other free throw,” DeVries said. “Luckily I got them to go, and it got us the win. It was nice.”
-- Chris Murray, Littleton Junior

“We weren’t happy at halftime,” Donahue said. “(Murray) had 18 points and not only that he was dishing off and letting other guys score, but all his baskets were coming from around the rim,” Donahue said. “We went to a diamond-and-one to start the third quarter, and it was effective for a while, but then they found an answer for that.”
-- Mark Donahue, Uxbridge Head Coach

2/21/12
“We struggled to get out of the first round the last couple of years, so it's good to move on,” Chris Patrinos said after netting a game-high 17 points on 6-of-10 shooting.
-- Chris Patrinos, Shepherd Hill Senior
 

“It's great — the best feeling of the year right now.”
-- Kyle McKissick, Shepherd Hill Senior

“We knew coming in we were going to have to play one of our better games for 32 minutes,” coach Tony Gannon said. “I thought we turned it over too many times early and we were never able to get into an offensive flow. They were mixing it up defensively and we had trouble adjusting.”
-- Tony Gannon, Clinton Head Coach

“He told us what we had to do, and we did it,” Patrinos said.
-- Chris Patrinos, Shepherd Hill Senior

“Any time you keep a team in the thirties you have a good shot at winning,” said senior point guard Alex Cone, who helped out with 10 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists. “We knew that defense was the first thing and that got our offense going.”
-- Alex Cone, Northbridge Senior

“Harrison's been doing this all year,” Northbridge coach Paul Baker said. “Some nights he doesn't score a lot, but he's always rebounding, he always plays great D and his 15-footer was really looking good tonight.”
-- Paul Baker, Northbridge Head Coach

“It's something that none of us experienced before,” said senior point guard Fred Taylor, who had 11 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists. “Hopefully now we can start up a tradition.”
-- Fred Taylor, Auburn Senior

“Especially in the third quarter, Murphy kind of went off,” Auburn coach Andy Niedzwiecki said. “If he's going to make that shot, we've got to tip our cap.”
-- Andy Niedzwiecki, Auburn Head Coach

“This was definitely a typical game for us. We like to push the ball a lot and get fast-break points,” Crusaders senior Will Peregoy said. “We love playing on the big court. We play on one at home, so we're used to it. Offense is our strength, everyone can shoot it.”
-- Will Peregoy, Groton Dunstable Senior

“First quarter, they were fresh and the effects of the long court hadn't kicked in for them yet,” Barberich said. “Second quarter, they were fatigued. We're used to playing on a long court. Our chemistry is good. We pass well and we pretty much know where everybody is going to be.”
-- Liam Barberich, Groton Dunstable Senior

“Defense was the key for us, and first half, we didn't play it that well, but second half, we did,” Romich said. “On offense, we try to push the court and run. That's how we play. Run the court and get our layups. We'll make turnovers, but we're also going to get our layups. And we know that if we drive the lane and kick it out, the shooters will make the shot.”
-- Kyle Romich, Groton Dunstable Senior

“That team was very, very good, and they can all shoot the ball,” said Olivier, whose three-point play slashed the Quabbin lead to 22-14 with 7:13 left in the first half. “For us, it was a good chance to see what we needed to work on to get ready for districts, but hopefully, we don't run into a team like that early.”
-- Marvin Oliver, Assabet Senior

“I think we showed that when teams try to take away something from our offense, we have plenty of guys who can shoot,” said Reed, who did his damage in 17 minutes of action. “It was one of those nights when everything was going through the hoop for a lot of guys, and that's tough to defend.”
-- Joe Reed, Quabbin Senior

“They did a nice job on Christian, playing a box-in-one on him, but we're used to that, and Christian's used to that,” said Quabbin coach Dennis Dextrauder, whose team split a pair of regular-season games with Shepherd Hill. “When Christian is the focus defensively, he occupies one or two guys, and our other guys get excited about that.
-- Dennis Dextrauder, Quabbin Head Coach

02/20/12
“We knew coming in that Hopedale was a great defensive team. They’re large and they’re tall,” Gomes said. “They tip a lot of passes, block a lot of shots. This was a battle, very physical. It was a great game. We came into this tournament with the mindset to win it.”
-- Corey Gomes, Uxbridge Senior

“I thought Hopedale did a great job defending us — they’re a tough team,” Uxbridge coach Mark Donahue said. “We got a few more deflection tips, transition hoops, and that was the difference in the game. And Mark and Corey came up big in crunch time. But it was a team effort. Tim Beaudette came off the bench and gave us a great defense and good defensive rebounding.”
-- Mark Donahue, Uxbridge Head Coach

“This game was all about defense and both teams played great defense, especially down the stretch,” DeVries said. “Two of my teammates, Dan Penza and Tim Beaudette, made big defensive plays down the stretch. On the drive I made at the end, I saw an opening and took it in. It was a big momentum swing hoop for us. Luckily, I got it to go.”
-- Mark DeVries, Uxbridge Junior

“We played great defense and we boxed them out,” Manning said. “We battled. Every time they seemed to be pulling away, we came back. Now it’s on to districts.”
-- Paul Manning, Hopedale Senior

“I thought North Brookfield had a good game plan against us,” coach Tony Paranto said. “We struggled shooting the ball a little bit and didn’t do a good job of getting in position offensively. Credit them.”
-- Tony Paranto, Bartlett Head Coach

“He’s probably our best pure shooter from the outside,” Paranto said.
-- Tony Paranto, Bartlett Head Coach

“We practiced all week knowing they’d press us,” NB coach Greg Sturges said. “That’s what they do. We were mentally prepared for it and played them pretty well after that run.”
-- Greg Sturges, North Brookfield Head Coach

“When we’re playing a really good team game, freeing each other with screens, working together and moving the ball, we can be really strong,” Murray said. “Our key has always been transition. The third quarter was big. We knew they had really good guards who can shoot the 3, and also drive and kick. But we played good defense on their two best players and kept them out of the paint.”
-- Chris Murray, Littleton Junior

“I think we did a great job defensively and second half we were able to come out, get rebounds and run in transition,” Johnson said. “First half, we had a tough time boxing their bigs out and they got a lot of offensive rebounds. Once our bigs started getting rebounds, we got our wing players running well, and our point guards know how to handle the ball.”
-- Danny Johnson, Littleton Junior

“Defensively, we didn’t play our best, but we showed up,” Bostek said. “The shots just weren’t falling. But it’s great to play here and Littleton has a good team. Now we move on.”
-- Tyler Bostek, Oxford Senior

“We just went to it to change it up,” Reilly said of the matchup zone he deployed. “It seemed to disrupt them, so we stuck with it.”
-- Chris Reilly, Quaboag Head Coach

“I really thought that was huge for us,” junior Thomas Jankins said after collecting 17 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists while playing all 32 minutes despite picking up a second foul a minute into the second quarter.
-- Thomas Jankins, Quaboag Junior

“It gave them a lot of trouble because they were breaking us down and getting to the paint. So that slowed them down a bit.”
-- Thomas Jankins, Quaboag Junior

“Everybody crashed the boards all night, which is what we needed,” said Toppin, who checks in at just under 5-foot-10. “We just had to find a way to get to the boards. We were grabbing rebounds and it gave us extra possessions and took time off the clock.”
-- Joshua Toppin, Quaboag Senior

“We were playing hard, I had no issue with the effort,” coach Paul Constantino said. “But rebounding was a factor. Ninety percent of the time if you can win the rebounds, you’ll win the game. They were getting second shots and we were limited to one.”
-- Paul Constantino, West Boylston Head Coach

02/17/12
“We know what he expects from us. And we're just going to go out and try to do it.”
-- Fred Taylor, Auburn Senior

“We're really excited. This year we finally put things together and it's been so long since we've been to the Clark. I'm so happy for the kids that they can experience it.”
-- Andy Niedzwiecki, Auburn Head Coach

“During that streak we got a lot of confidence. And I think we knew we could do it.”
-- Tyler Lamonda, Auburn Junior

“We're just playing together more. In past years we tried to do things one on one.”
-- Fred Taylor, Auburn Senior

“The biggest thing for us is they've committed to that end of the floor. Offensively we've had some really good games and we've had some poor games, but, for the most part, our defense has been there every night. The kids have bought into our specific defense and have a pretty good understanding of what we do against certain teams. They've been really in tune with how to run that defense and that's been the biggest key.”
-- Andy Niedzwiecki, Auburn Head Coach

“They need to know what it is that's coming.” We're going to be playing more quality teams come tournament time. Everyone is going to give their best effort. I think through the past few years there were teams that could come in and beat us without putting in their best effort and that's turned around this year. That's how it's going to be come tournament time. No one is going to just show up and beat us. We'll give them our best shot and they're going to have to give us theirs.”
-- Andy Niedzwiecki, Auburn Head Coach

“Absolutely. When I get together with friends who played we always talk about ‘the Clark.' It's always ‘the Clark.' It is definitely a special experience and I'm glad the guys get to be there.”
-- Andy Niedzwiecki, Auburn Head Coach

02/09/12
“I thought our chances for Clark were pretty much done.”  When I found out today that we were in, the whole school was already buzzing.”
--Ralph Grasso, Assabet Valley Head Coach

“I’ve come here as a fan for the past 15 years to watch it. There is no better atmosphere than when you come here for a high school tournament. It’s the best.”
--Ralph Grasso, Assabet Valley Head Coach

“We’ve talked about that hyphen in between the wins and losses.” And it’s very meaningless what’s to the left and what’s to the right because we approach every game as if it’s 0-0.”
-- Dennis Dextradeur, Quabbin Head Coach

“It’s going to be a challenge and a half to just be able to come in and stay with them.  “It’s something great for the program. This is only my second year and two years ago (we) were 2-18, so even the fact that they’re in position to be there is an honor.”
--Ralph Grasso, Assabet Valley Head Coach

“I’ve been at this game for 32 years and my players have always told me that the Clark Tournament was much more of a thrill and an exciting experience for them than postseason play in the districts. The Clark just allows that atmosphere to be able to come here and get to play other leagues and see other teams.”
-- Dennis Dextradeur, Quabbin Head Coach