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PORTLAND — James Morse had the ball in his hands in the fourth quarter Saturday night, right where Thornton Academy wanted it.
Morse sank 9 of 10 free throws in the period to lift fourth-seeded Thornton Academy to its first Western Class A schoolboy basketball championship with a 49-43 victory against sixth-ranked Portland at the Cumberland County Civic Center.
Thornton (18-3) will play Edward Little, which hasn’t been in a state final since 1957, for the Gold Ball at 4 p.m. next Saturday at the Augusta Civic Center.
“It feels great,” said Morse, who scored a game-high 17 points. “Last year we came so close and it felt terrible.”Thornton lost to Cheverus in the regional final last year, then ousted the top-ranked Stags in this season’s semifinals.
Now comes Edward Little.
“I don’t know anything about them but I’m sure we’ll find out this week in practice,” said Morse.
Holding a late lead, Thornton ran time off the clock with Morse as the quarterback.
“I feel comfortable with the ball in my hands,” said Morse. “That’s what my teammates expect of me.”
The Golden Trojans ran off 50 seconds before Andrew Shaw was fouled with two minutes left.
Portland (15-7) made 10 of 15 from the line in the fourth quarter. Thornton sank 15 of 19.
“You should win a regional title when you hold your opponent to 49 points,” said Portland Coach Joe Russo.
“We had our chances with some good looks at the end, but we couldn’t make them. We lost the game at the line.”
The Bulldogs converted 12 of 22 from the foul line for the game.
The game was very physical with a lot of hard contact under the boards.
“We had the mental and physical toughness along with talent to handle the type of game it was,” said Morse.Thornton only trailed seconds into the game. Shaw hit two early 3-pointers: His second gave Thornton a 10-4 lead. The Golden Trojans led 16-9 after one quarter, 24-20 at halftime and 30-28 after three quarters.
They spurted to a 38-30 lead on a basket by Doug Wilcox with 5:46 remaining, but the Bulldogs stayed close and cut it to two points twice in the late stages.
After two Morse foul shots made it 44-40 with 52 seconds left, Portland missed two shots.
First, James Ek missed a 3-point attempt from the side. Koang Thok got the rebound but missed a short jumper.Portland got the ball back and Walter Stover tried to call a timeout as he was going out of bounds, but his foot touched the sideline.
Portland was forced to foul and the Golden Trojans converted. Michael Guerin made two with 24 seconds left. The Bulldogs called a timeout and seconds later, Ek hit a 3-pointer from the corner to cut it to three points.
But even when Morse missed his only free throw, he got the rebound, was fouled and closed it out with two more from the line witth seven seconds left.
The clock ran out and Thornton had its first regional championship.
Shaw added 13 points, eight coming in the opening period.
Ed Bogdanovich led Portland with 11 points. Ek added 10 and Stover chipped in with nine.
Portland’s season featured bookend losses to Thornton. In their only other meeting, the Trojans beat the Bulldogs 67-46 in the opening game of the season.
Staff Writer Tom Chard can be contacted at 791-6419 or at:
tchard@pressherald.com
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