NEWBURYPORT — It couldn’t end like this.
After the regular season the Newburyport boys basketball team just had, blitzing its way to a 17-3 record and the team’s sixth straight CAL Kinney title, a first-round exit in the playoffs would have felt wrong. Especially considering that on Thursday night, the Clippers were playing a state tournament game in front of their home crowd for the first time in four years.
And yet, it nearly ended in heartbreak.
For the first half of its Division 3 First Round game, No. 8 Newburyport trailed a No. 25 Hudson team that traveled to High Street ready to pull off the massive upset. But even though the Clippers ended up getting all they could handle for the full 32 minutes, juniors Carson Gretz and Finn Brennan made sure they walked out with a hard-fought, 60-50, win to keep their season alive.
Again, at this stage of the year, just survive and advance.
“We weren’t hitting shots in the first half,” said Gretz, who finished with a team-high 21 points on three 3s along with 10 rebounds. “So it felt good to hit them in the second half and just be able to move on in the tournament. It’s a relief.”
But if you wanted to draw up the “Anatomy of an Upset,” the Hawks did it.
Led by senior Jackson O’Brien (13 pts) and junior Jake Attaway (22 pts, 6 rebs), Hudson jumped out to an early 12-4 lead that stayed at 17-11 after the first quarter. Even though the Hawks (11-11) were undersized, guys like Attaway and Garrett Giorgio were excellent in crashing the glass for offensive boards, helping keep the lead at 29-22 heading into the halftime break.
Plain and simple, the Clippers (18-3) were getting out-worked.
“Early on I was a bit nervous but it kind of wore off,” said Gretz. “Coach (Dom) Masi was having us take deep breaths in the locker room, so that kind of reset us.”
And Newburyport needed that reset.
After the break, the Clippers simplified the offense to just exploiting their height advantage down low with the 6-foot-5 Gretz, and the 6-3 Brennan. Hudson held on for as long as it could, but a pair of buckets from Brennan (20 pts, 9 rebs), a driving layup from Sam Craig (3 pts, 9 rebs, 3 blocks) and two transition baskets from Connor Spinney (11 pts) gave the Clippers their first lead at 39-38 with 1:14 left in the third. One of Gretz’s three 3s near the buzzer made it 42-39 heading into the fourth, and the Clippers didn’t look back.
“(Hudson) played great,” said Newburyport coach Mark Elmendorf. “I went to see them on Tuesday night and they played really well. No. 1 (Attaway) for them is a really good player and No. 11 (O’Brien) as well. But I thought our second half was just terrific. I thought defensively we were so much better. Connor Spinney defensively on No. 1 was fantastic. and then our two big guys took advantage of their height in the second half, which was really key.”
Spinney then nailed a big 3 late in the fourth, followed by a Gretz offensive rebound and layup to make it 52-44 with two minutes left. The Hawks kept fighting and cut it as close as 54-50, but Gretz made his free throws in the closing seconds to ice it.
Newburyport will now host either No. 9 Tantasqua or No. 24 Dennis-Yarmouth in the Round of 16 (time/date TBD). It’s the first time the Clippers have made it to the “Sweet 16” since the MIAA moved to the statewide playoff format three years ago.
Newburyport 60, Hudson 50
Division 3 First Round
Hudson (50): Garrett Giorgio 3-2-8, Jake Attaway 6-9-22, Jackson O’Brien 5-2-13, Nolan Yates 2-0-4, Nico Giorgio 0-0-0, Owen Murphy 1-0-3, Ben Hillis 0-0-0, Christian Andrade 0-0-0, Anthony Moura 0-0-0. Totals 17-13-50
Newburyport (60): Sam Craig 1-1-3, Cal Atherton 1-0-2, Connor Spinney 5-0-11, Finn Brennan 9-2-20, Carson Gretz 6-6-21, Zayd Leanna 1-0-3. Totals 23-9-60
3-pointers: N — Gretz 3, Spinney, Leanna; H — Murphy, Attaway, O’Brien
Hudson (11-11): 17 12 10 11 — 50
Newburyport (18-3): 11 11 20 18 — 60