MIAA Playoffs vs N

The 3rd Quarter was a strong one for Classical. Our shots were going in and theirs weren't.

Jasper Grassa was everywhere in the 3rd Quarter, going into super speed mode.

Classical took out the ball, trying to get it to Jasper for the final shot, but Ariel had to pass it to Carlo to get it inbounds. Jasper got loose, Carlo passed to Jasper, who shot from about 25 feet toward the basket as the clock reached zero and the timer bell buzzed. The long shot bounced against the backboard and dropped in. The referees determined - - - it was a good 3 pointer and the game was over. Dozens of fans swept onto the floor in total excitement. North Reading fans stood with their mouths wide open, hardly believing the game was over.

Jasper Grassa ended up with 31 points, Tony Wonde and Carlo Buono had seven each, Josh Imadiyi had six, Nick Grassa had 5, and Ariel Ligonde had 2.

Next stop - - - the Quarterfinals at Reading High School this Wednesday 3/3/2010 at 7:00pm in Lawrence. There will be buses leaving from Classical, only $5 gets you there. See the Athletic Department to reserve a seat.

Classical boys outlast North Andover on Jasper Grassa's miracle shot

By Steve Krause / The Daily Item

NORTH ANDOVER -- Whichever Classical supporter stole the horseshoe had better hope nobody finds it until the state tournament is over.

Twice, since the tournament began, the Rams have been on the precipice of an early elimination. And twice, they've eked out a win to advance.

The latest victory -- 58-55 Sunday over Division 2 North top seed North Andover -- was commensurately more improbable than the one against Woburn last week. There were so many momentum shifts in this one that if your head was spinning when it ended, you wouldn't have been alone.

Consider: Classical led, 43-28, after three quarters and looked as if it would just keep rolling; North Andover poured in 27 points in the final quarter -- 15 of them by 6-5 center Alex Blane -- and climbed into a tie (55-55) with 7.3 seconds left on two free throws by Scott Ricketts (more on that in a moment); and the play that resulted in Jasper Grassa's 32-foot heave (it might as well have been from the campus of nearby Merrimack College) with 2.6 seconds left (when he took it) came off a busted play.

To set up the incredible ending, you have to know that: the game was evenly played through the first half, with Classical leading 23-21 after two ice-cold shooting quarters (except for Jasper, who, with 31 points, was on fire from the get-go); the Rams closed out the third period with a 7-0 run to take a 15-point lead after three; and, befuddled by a full-court press and victimized by Blane's sudden inside presence (he'd been held to two points over three quarters), the Rams gave it all back before Grassa's heroics saved the day.

We pick up the action with 8.4 seconds left in the game, Classical leading 55-53, and Grassa weaving his way through four North Andover players scurrying to trap him. This, he did -- bringing fans on both sides of the floor out of the seats.

"And it wasn't sloppy dribbling either," coach Tom Grassa said. "It was very well done."

To that point, Grassa had scored 28 points -- which was more than half of the Rams' total of 55 to that point. He got fouled, and with a golden opportunity to seal the deal, he missed the front end of his one-and-one. Then, to make things worse, he fouled Ricketts as they fought for control of the rebound.

"First," he said, "I should have hit the free throws. None of this would have happened if I'd just hit the free throws. I was going pretty good, and felt like I had a groove. But I missed it."

His father wryly noted, "the kid was 85 feet away from the basket, and we fouled him."

With Classical in double penalty, Ricketts got two shots with 7.3 seconds left ... and hit them both.

The Rams called timeout to set up a play, and were supposed to set two screens to spring Grassa for the (hopefully) game-winning shot. But the Scarlet Knights fought through that, and Grassa was nowhere to be found. So Ariel Ligonde inbounded to guard Carlo Buono, who crossed the halfcourt line and found Grassa, who had somehow managed to get away from the army of North Andover players guarding him.

"I don't want to mention any names," North Andover coach Mike McVeigh said, "they're all heartbroken. But we did a great job initially, but we let him get free."

With 6-4 guard Matt Sifferlen bearing down on him, Grassa threw up a shot that even his father considered a prayer.

"I'm thinking 'at least we got a shot off' ... and now, we concentrate on overtime," he said.

When it left his hands, it looked way long. It looked as if it might hit the backboard and bounce right back out to him. Instead, it hit the backboard and fell in as the horn sounded -- leaving the Rams jubilant and the North Andover kids appropriately stunned.

"Just how we drew it up," Tom Grassa said, with his head in his hands. "This is just unbelievable."

"I knew when I released it there were 2.6 seconds left on the clock," Jasper Grassa said. "So I knew I had to shoot it."

"I'm happy for him," said Tom Grassa, whose team will play Reading Wednesday (at Lawrence, 7) in the semifinal. "He missed the foul shot, and then fouled (Ricketts, who made the two free throws). So I'm happy for him in that sense.

"But," he said, "I'm also happy for my team. A lot of these kids have stuck with us, and this is the first time in the last five years we've made it this far. For the last three years, we've been eliminated in this round."