By DAN BARILE
Eagle Times Correspondent
LANGDON, N.H. — Nate Haskell’s tenure as the head coach of the Fall Mountain boy’s varsity basketball program began last season with a surprising three-point victory against a Hopkinton team coming off a trip to the Division 3 semifinals.
For the first time since that matchup, Fall Mountain and Hopkinton squared off on the hardwood, but this time around it was the Wildcats who were considered the favorites as they entered the contest ahead of Hopkinton in the standings.
Despite trailing for most of the fourth quarter, Fall Mountain came through in the clutch to claim a 62-56 victory on Friday night at The Den.
Hopkinton held an 18-17 lead at the end of the first quarter before cooling off over the following eight minutes. Fall Mountain held the Hawks to just six points in the second quarter to enter the half with a 29-24 edge.
In what seems to be a trend, Ledger Willett put together another terrific third quarter, tallying eight points for the hosts. Despite Willett’s sharp shooting, Hopkinton reclaimed a 42-41 lead behind 16 combined points from Tommy Dwyer and Ben Normand during the period.
Trailing by one point entering the final minute, Willett hit his biggest shot of the night when he connected from beyond the arc to give the Wildcats a 58-56 lead with 55 seconds remaining. Luke St. Pierre made all four of his free throw attempts down the stretch as Fall Mountain held the Hawks scoreless the rest of the way to earn a six-point victory.
Ledger Willett paced Fall Mountain with 22 points, Luke St. Pierre was next with 20, and Tyson Patch added 10. Tommy Dwyer was the top scorer for Hopkinton (6-8) with 22 points and Ben Normand tossed in 21.
Fall Mountain (9-4) wraps up the regular season this week with two games against Conant (6-9) before heading to Winnisquam (0-14) on Friday at 7 p.m.
