Laplante Powers King Philip Past Hingham

 
 
 WRENTHAM, Mass. — The King Philip boys basketball team had to anxiously wait four days to find out if their 10-12 campaign was good enough to earn a spot in the state tournament.

The Warriors ended up earning the 31st seed in the Division 1 state tournament, and senior Will Laplante was not going to let that opportunity go to waste.

Laplante had an incredible second half, pouring in 28 of his career-high 32 points including the go-ahead three-pointer with two minutes to go — only the Warriors’ second lead of the entire game — and King Philip emerged with a 73-67 win over #34 Hingham.

Click here for a photo gallery from this game.

The win was KP’s first postseason victory since 2012, a decision over Whitman-Hanson powered by Jake Layman.

“For us to see our name in that bracket, we felt like we were given an opportunity, and we had to do something with it,” Laplante said. “We had a couple of tough losses in the last two weeks, and we were close to not making it in so getting this chance, we knew we had to take advantage of it.

“I really wanted to slow it down, just needed to calm down and let the game come to me. After getting the two fouls in the first, I was trying to help my teammates more and try and get some offensive rebounds. And the second half, it was just go time. If it was going to happen, it had to happen then. We talked in the locker room about this was it, this was our season, and we came together and got it done. It was nice to see that one go in. I really thank coach because he drew up a play for me at the start of the second half and that really brought me back into it. I hit that one three, and I felt it right there.”

The senior guard was limited to just four points in the opening half, hitting just one shot from the field, and missed a good stretch after picking up his second foul in the first quarter. Despite a rough shooting performance in the first half, head coach Dave DeStefano went right back to Laplante early in the third quarter and the rest was history.

“Over the last week, Will has realized he doesn’t want this season to end and he’s going to do whatever it takes to keep going, and he proved that tonight,” DeStefano said. “He had some really good looks in the first half but once those first couple of shots fell in the second half, he really got it going. He looked more comfortable and the game started to slow down for him.

“[In the first half] he was taking good shots, he was playing with composure so I’m going to let him go because he’s a basketball player. He knows there will be ups and downs, and it’s a game of runs, and Will did a great job tonight responding. He finished really strong for us.”

He hit four shots in a row inside the first four minutes of the second half, including three straight threes and a strong take to the rim that handed KP its first lead of the game at 43-42.

The lead only lasted a minute as Hingham’s 1,000-point scorer Liam McBride (21 points, five rebounds) hit a tough runner to put the Harbormen back in front. He combined with Chase Mello (23 points) to spark a 9-0 run for the visitors and KP’s small lead was quickly back to a deficit.

Hingham led for the first six minutes of the final quarter, coming up with an answer each time KP made a move. Laplante drained an early triple but Hingham’s Charlie Matthews converted a putback and McBride finished down low as the lead stretched back to seven, 59-52, with less than five minutes to go.

Senior Tommy Martorano (20 points) got out in transition for a layup, Laplante converted a traditional three-point play and then had a steal and assist to classmate Grant Kinney (four rebounds, five assists, and a strong defensive performance) to finally get level again at 59-59, but Mello was fouled seconds later and his free throws with 3:20 put Hingham back ahead.

Martorano once again got out in transition, this time using a nice spin move to finish with his favored left hand before two more free throws from Mello kept the advantage with Hingham.

Laplante promptly responded with another triple to put KP ahead 64-63 with two minutes to go and the Warriors did not trail the rest of the way.

Junior Tommy McLeish hauled in one of his seven boards off a miss and Laplante, who went 11-for-15 at the line, hit two free throws to extend the lead to 66-63.

Sophomore Tommy Kilroy (11 points, eight rebounds, three assists) came up with a key block on a baseline jumper with under a minute to go, and McLeish was able to battle for a key defensive board off of a Hingham free throw miss. Martorano, Laplante, and Kilroy combined to go 7-for-8 from the line in the final moments to secure the win.

After going down 59-52, KP did not allow Hingham another field goal the rest of the way as the Harbormen got their final eight points over the final five minutes all from the free throw line.

Click here for a photo gallery from this game.

“It was all about getting stops, especially in the tournament,” DeStefano said. “You need to get stops and it started on the defensive end for us. I’m not saying we played great defensively but in the fourth quarter, when we needed to dig in they did a good job of getting stops.”

“With our backs against the wall, our defense really got us back into it,” Laplante said. “We had a couple of score-stop-scores and just getting those stops in the fourth quarter really helped us.”

The Warriors struggled to get going from the three-point line out of the gates, going just 1-for-10 from distance over the first eight minutes, but only trailed 17-12. Kilroy dropped in two threes in the second quarter, Martorano added five points, and sophomores Jack Assini (six points) and Brandon Nicastro combined for six in the quarter to keep the Warriors close, 34-30, at halftime.

King Philip boys basketball (11-12) advances to the Division 1 Round of the 32 and will travel to play #2 Lawrence (20-2) on Thursday at 6:30.