By Ken Chaisson
Hometown Weekly Correspondent
One more win.
That’s what the Walpole boys’ basketball team was looking for coming into the Dudley Davenport Classic held at Sharon High School on Feb. 15-16. One more win in the regular season would qualify them for the state tournament, something they hadn’t done since 2023.
The Timberwolves got the job done, splitting their two games to finish the regular season at 10-10 and lock up a berth in the upcoming Division 2 State Tournament.
The three schools invited to the tournament were the Timberwolves, Dedham (11-7) and Mt Hope High School (20-1) from Bristol, RI.
Walpole was power ranked 27th in Division 2 coming into the tournament. Dedham was ranked 30th in Division 3. The top 32 teams in each division make the playoffs.
Walpole had a tough loss to Weymouth (1-17) in their last game, 89-88, on a game ending buzzer beater despite senior captain Ryan McDonald’s 40 points. A win in that game could have locked up a playoff spot for the Timberwolves.
McDonald scored his 1,000th career point against Needham. He became the fourth Walpole boy — the first in 22 years — to achieve the standard, joining Tim Clifford, Matt Wolff and Tim Collins Jr.
Coming into the tournament, Walpole got a boost with the return of sophomore point guard, Cole Chase, after missing seven games.
Against Dedham, Walpole opened fast, going up 9-4 but the quarter ended with Dedham up 12-9. Walpole’s offense went cold for the last four minutes of the first quarter and the first half of the second quarter. That cold streak led to a 31-18 deficit at halftime which Walpole couldn’t shrink during the second half. Dedham ultimately prevailed 68-52.
After scoring 88 points in their last game, the 18 points scored in the cold shooting first half was an anomaly. Walpole doubled their scoring output in the third quarter. However, Dedham matched them.
McDonald led the Timberwolves with 18. Junior Shane Harrington added 10 while senior captain James Patey contributed eight.
Mt Hope bested Sharon in their opener, 53-44. Therefore, Walpole then matched up against Sharon in the consolation game. Sharon was ranked 56th in Division 1 and out of playoff contention.
Sophomore Chris Niclas came to play against the Eagles. He scored the first four points of the game and dominated at each end of the floor. Walpole jumped out to 20-14 lead at quarter’s end in a much faster paced game.
The second quarter picked up the pace even more plus the three ball started dropping for the Timberwolves, who went into half leading comfortably, 43-26.
Walpole stretched the lead to 25 in the middle of the third quarter but the hometown Eagles would not go quietly. Sharon cut the lead to seven and were at the free throw line with under one minute to go in the game. But Walpole rebounded well and made their free throws to pull away for a 78-66 victory.
Harrington led the Timberwolves with 22 points. Niclas finished with 16 plus a bunch of rebounds and tough defense. The captains, McDonald and Patey, added 15 and 10, respectively.
With their backs to the wall, Walpole finished the regular season at 10-10, enough to finish 27th in the power rankings and achieve a spot in the state tournament.
Congratulations !
