BRAINTREE — Progress isn’t measured only by championships. That’s good news for the Archbishop Williams High boys basketball program, which fell short in Saturday’s Catholic Central League Cup final but now can aim high after a breakthrough campaign.
In an abbreviated season, the Bishops (12-7) posted their highest win total in more than a decade, although they didn’t get to celebrate a title as Bishop Feehan walked out of the Williams gym with a 63-48 win.
“I don’t think anyone thought we’d be hosting the CCL championship game,” said senior center Jack McCarthy of Braintree. “It was our goal to make it. Just being there was awesome.”
“I think we’ve taken a (big) step,” agreed Brian Holden, now three seasons into his second stint as Williams coach following a two-year hiatus due to work conflicts. “… We’re not into moral victories (but) we had a very good year. I don’t know if people expected us to have the year that we did. Being the Number 1 seed and being able to play at home for the CCL Cup final was one of our goals and we accomplished that.
“(Today) we ran into a very good team and a very good program. They played the right way, and they made more plays than us.”
Adam Drummond, a 6-foot senior guard from North Attleboro, scored 12 of his game-high 18 points in the fourth quarter to power the Shamrocks (17-3). He drained three 3-pointers in the quarter, including a backbreaking corner trey that put Feehan up 54-46 with 2:47 left.
“Scouting report said he can shoot it and we didn’t have a hand up (in his face), we weren’t close enough,” Holden said. “Then we left him (alone) in the corner (on another one). That’s where we need to get better — mentally being tougher and being more disciplined on defense.”
“My teammates were feeding me,” Drummond said. “I just did my best to hit the shots that I could. I was happy with the way it came out.”
The win was a boost for Feehan, which has been dealing with the fallout from the serious spine injury suffered by senior hockey player A.J. Quetta in a recent game. On Saturday, Quetta, who has been transferred to a rehabilitation facility in Georgia, shared a video thanking everyone for their support.
“We’re all one community, so we’re all doing it for him,” Drummond said. “We’re just really happy we could win this game for him.”
Senior guard Will O’Malley (Dorchester) led Williams with 13 points. Sophomore guard Andre Mills Jr. (Dorchester) added 12, and Brendan Kubik, a senior swingman from Pembroke, had 11.
“It’s very tough” to say goodbye, O’Malley noted. “We played hard the whole season. It’s not the way that we wanted it to end. … We just didn’t perform up to our expectations (today). But that’s how it goes sometimes.”
Williams had plenty of highlights this season, perhaps none bigger than Wednesday night’s 98-91 triple-overtime victory over St. Mary’s in the CCL Cup semifinals. Mills had 41 in that one, O’Malley added 26, and McCarthy had 15 points and 10 rebounds.
“It was the most exciting game I’ve ever played in,” McCarthy said.
“It’s funny,” Holden said. “We had a triple-overtime game my first year back (as coach in 2018-19) against Spellman, where we lost when (a win) would have put us in the state tournament. At least we won the other night. It’s a lot easier to take (the stress of a game like that) when you’re not taking a loss.
“That was a great game. It would have been great to have fans in here for that (instead of playing under limited-attendance COVID rules). That was a great win for us. We gutted it out.”
Graduation will claim O’Malley and McCarthy, among others.
“Huge losses,” Holden said. “I really didn’t know what to expect (from either of them this winter). We had Will last year and he had a good year but not the kind of year he had this year. Man, he’s a good little guard who scored for us and played very good defense.
“And then Jack, it was his first year playing for us (after sitting out last season after transferring from Braintree High). He gave us an inside presence with rebounding and scoring around the basket. Both of those guys will be big losses.”
Millis will be back, though, and expectations will be high after a tremendous sophomore campaign.
“He gets 41 the other night and he probably thinks, ‘I’m going to go get 30 or 40 again,'” Holden said. “(But Feehan is) too smart and too disciplined and too well coached to let him get that. He has to learn how to battle through adversity and pick his spots — when to get his shot, when to give (the ball) up.”
Still, the departing Bishops are convinced that a star was born this winter.
“The sky’s the limit (for him),” McCarthy said. “He can do whatever he wants. He’s got a crazy work ethic.”
“He’ll look at this one and he’ll come back better than ever next year,” O’Malley said. “I know that for a fact. He’ll make noise next year.”
Holden hopes that holds true for his whole team.
“I told the young guys, ‘Look what’s going on on your own floor with the (Feehan) celebration,'” he said. “Hopefully we can learn from this. They have nine months to go get better. It depends on our kids — do they want to develop their skills so that when they come back we can be at the top of the league again?”
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