NEWARK – What happens when you play a near-perfect game at the perfect time?
You tie the largest margin of victory in the 55-year history of DIAA Boys Basketball Tournament championship games.
That’s what Tower Hill did on Saturday night, coming out on fire and staying hot the entire way to scorch Salesianum 79-43 in front of a sellout crowd at the Bob Carpenter Center.
The third-seeded Hillers (20-3) made it look ridiculously easy in their first trip to the championship game, to the surprise of everyone. Even their head coach.
“Never in my wildest dreams would I think we would shoot like that,” Patrick Kaiser said. “But we picked a good day to do it.”
Tower Hill hit its first four shots – all 3-pointers. Then the Hillers hit two more long balls to lead 18-4 after the first quarter.
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That was just the start.
Davis Bland opened the second quarter with two more 3-balls from the right wing – his third and fourth of the night already. Then Dean Shepherd drove down the lane twice for Tower Hill’s first two-point baskets of the game.
With 4:58 remaining in the second quarter, the Hillers had hit 8 of 9 3-point shots and led 28-4.
“I just kept shooting,” said Shepherd, who splashed two 3-pointers in the initial onslaught. “I looked at my teammates. I saw Davis hitting some threes, so I just wanted to shoot one and it went in. So I kept shooting.”
It was 34-9 at halftime. But Kaiser gave his team a different score.
“Our coaches were preaching it’s a new game, 0-0,” Bland said.
Top-seeded Salesianum (15-9) had no choice but to start the second half in a full-court press, and Tower Hill was ready. Point guard D.J. McClendon and the Shepherd brothers – Dean and Dylan – limited the Hillers’ turnovers and the Sals could get no closer than 23 points.
“It goes to the poise of the players,” Kaiser said. “They’ve got a lot of heart, and they stay calm under strenuous situations. I’m really happy with the way they handled it.”
Bland, a 6-foot-5 senior headed to Washington College, started the second half with two more 3-pointers. He finished the night 7-for-10 behind the arc and scored 23 points.
“He’ll shoot from anywhere on the court, and when he’s confident, he can get hot like that,” Kaiser said of Bland. “I’m just glad he picked tonight to have the best shooting performance of his career.”
The big court, big atmosphere and deep shooting background at the Bob has affected many high school teams over the years, but Bland felt right at home. He made four 3-balls in a 58-42 semifinal win over Seaford on Thursday, when the Hillers hit 7 of 13 from deep overall.
“I love it here,” he said. “I saw a couple go in in warmups, and just kept it going during the game.”
The final margin of 36 points tied the championship-game record set in 1999, when William Penn thumped Lake Forest 78-42.
Tower Hill shot 63.9 percent from the field overall (23 of 36), 61.9 percent from 3-point range (13 of 21) and 76.9 percent from the line (20 of 26).
Dylan Shepherd cashed in 12 of 14 free throws and was the leading scorer with 24 points. Dean Shepherd added 18 and Marty Coyne chipped in 10.
The smaller Hillers even outrebounded the Sals 35-21, mostly because there weren’t many misses for Sallies to collect.
BOX SCORE: Tower Hill 79, Salesianum 43
Salesianum, which hit just 28.6 percent from the field, was led by 13 points from Brett O’Hara.
The Sals scored a 54-46 victory at Tower Hill during the regular season on Feb. 3, but this one couldn’t have been any more different.
“It was unbelievable,” Dean Shepherd said.
Believe it.
Contact Brad Myers at bmyers@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter: @BradMyersTNJ
