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DURHAM — With only 30 seconds remaining and just moments after seeing the nine-point lead his team had built completely vanish, Chris Borea hit the biggest shot of his young basketball life.
Trailing the fifth-seeded Blue Devils by one, 55-54, the St. Paul Catholic junior guard quickly found the ball in his hands, never thought twice about it and let it go.
When the ball rattled out and then back in, that 3-pointer not only gave St. Paul back the lead it held for most of the game, but it proved to be the game-winner, sending the Falcons into the Class S State Tournament quarterfinals for the second consecutive season.
“There’s definitely a lot of nerves in that situation. I was nervous in the last minute because every time up and down the floor we were going back-and-forth,” Borea said. “But the whole team stayed calm. We kept our composure and we didn’t rush anything. We did it.”
The lead changed hands four times in the final 1 minute 20 seconds of the contest.
While St. Paul’s 60-55 win over Coginchaug Wednesday night was a collective effort, without its floor general’s performance in the second half, there would almost certainly be no games left for the 12th-seeded Falcons to play this season.
The final 3-point basket off Borea’s fingertips with 28 seconds to play to put his team in front for good may have been his biggest, but it was just one in a series of timely hoops from 5-foot-8 guard.
Borea started the game 0-of-5 from behind the arc and had just two points through the first 22 minutes of the contest. But that didn’t deter him from doing what he does best — shoot.
With 2 minutes 7 seconds showing on the third-period clock, he put up another. This time it fell through the net The trey came on the heels of the Blue Devils taking their first lead since the opening possession of the second quarter.
He stroked another the very next St. Paul trip down the court to spark an 8-0 Falcon run to close the frame.
“To me, the most impressive thing was not just making the shots but was his recognition that they were shots that needed to be taken at that moment,” St. Paul coach Steve Phelps said of Borea. “We’ve had confidence in Chris since he was a freshman. He was really special tonight for more reasons than just knocking down those threes.”
Getting that first one to go turned what had been a quiet offensive performance for one of St. Paul’s leading scorers into what he described as the best game he’s played in his basketball career, high school or otherwise.
“The coaches were telling me to just keep being patient and not to force it,” Borea said of his early shooting struggle. “But once I got that one to go, that’s when I started feeling it.”
Borea (game-high 19 points) knocked down five second-half 3-pointers. Two came in the final 1:07 of game.
After the Falcons took a 47-38 advantage at the 6:46 mark of the fourth, Coginchaug came to life.
Four straight points from the free-throw line was followed by a hanging jumper from Thomas Ryan to inch the Devils (16-7) closer. Three Falcon turnovers in four possessions kept the Coginchaug rally going.
When Ryan (19 points) was true on a trey of his own, what had been a nine-point St. Paul lead was down to one. Twenty-seven seconds later, the Falcons’ (14-9) lead had completely vanished. In fact, thanks to an Erikson Wasyl drive down the lane, St. Paul was suddenly trailing, 52-51 with only 1 minute left on the clock.
The Falcons simply refused to have their season end however.
The first of Borea’s waning moment 3-pointers lead the Falcons to a 9-3 spurt to end things with them on top.
But one of the bigger plays in that stretch didn’t come at offensive end at all.
With 13 seconds to go and the Falcons clinging to a two-point cushion and Coginchaug inbounding the ball under the St. Paul basket with a chance to tie or take the lead, Byron Jones (13 points, 8 rebounds) made sure the ball never got into a Devils’ hand.
Jones leaped and got a finger on the inbound pass that ultimately found its way into the waiting arms of a teammate.
“We felt that this was going to be a good matchup heading into it,” Phelps said. “Coginchaug plays with an awful lot of heart and intelligence and they’re good. But in those last two minutes, our guys did the things we’ve been telling them to. They rebounded and played defense.”
It was the type of win, Phelps added, that makes a coach proud.
“In those moments, it’s out of our hands. We can’t coach them there. They can’t hear us out there. All you can do is hope that the things you’ve done with them over the last four months is with them. You just have to feel like they can get this done,” he said. “Being able watch them do that is gratifying for us and the players.
“The best thing about the win is that we get to be together for at least two more days,” the skipper added.
Travis Thomas had 10 points, four assists and four steals; Justin Gonzalez added seven points and five rebounds; Pat McGuire grabbed six boards and David Shaw led the Falcons in the first-half, scoring all 10 of his points in the opening 16 minutes.
St. Paul will face its third Shoreline Conference team in row Friday night in the quarterfinals as it will take on fourth-seeded Valley Regional at a neutral site.
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Athletics 
