Watertown too strong for Fenwick boys hoop

LOWELL – It was the matchup that most people were hoping to see in the Division 3 North final on Sunday at Tsongas Arena: Bishop Fenwick versus Watertown. But it was the team with the experience on the big stage that came out on top.In a clash of styles, the high-tempo second-seeded Raiders were looking to upend the No. 1 Crusaders. And much like their game in the semifinals two years ago, speed won out over patience.Despite an abysmal shooting performance in the first half and one of their best players, Kyle Stockmal, being held scoreless, the Raiders led 24-16 at halftime thanks to their trapping defense. And from there, Fenwick simply couldn’t catch up.Led by double-digit games from Kyle Stockmal, Cory Stockmal, Benyam Kerman and Richard Morrisey, along with a swarming defense that forced 21 turnovers and made life miserable in general for Fenwick, the Raiders rolled to a 62-48 win and a return trip to TD BankNorth Garden.”That was our game plan coming in,” Watertown coach Steve Harrington said. “We had to pressure and go full-court against them.”One of the other big reasons for the Raiders’ success on Sunday was their ability to keep Fenwick star Mike Clifford in check until the game was firmly in their control.Clifford finished the game and his brilliant career with 25 points and 19 rebounds. However, 15 of the points came in the fourth quarter, when the Raiders had a comfortable lead.”Watertown is a great defensive team,” Fenwick coach Mike Kane said. “They didn’t let Mike get easy looks in the paint and they were doubling and tripling down on him. That really slowed our flow on offense.”Both teams showed a bit of nerves at the start, with Fenwick leading 9-6 after the first quarter thanks to five points from Clifford. The Raiders, who missed all seven of their three-point attempts in the first quarter, settled down quickly in the second and showed why they were so highly thought of coming into the tournament.Kerman’s layup at the start of the second was the catalyst that sent the Raiders on a 9-1 run that was capped by a Cory Stockmal three that gave Watertown a 17-10 lead with 4:30 left in the half.Fenwick cut the lead to three on the back of solid play underneath by Clifford and baskets by Nolan and Brett DiPanfilo. The Raiders’ pressure defense, however, continued to cause Fenwick fits as Morrisey hit a layin, part of his eight first-half points, and Stockmal converted a conventional 3-point play to help give the Raiders a 24-16 lead at halftime.The Watertown defense, which forced 11 turnovers in the opening 16 minutes, held Clifford to seven points and 10 rebounds in the first half while Nolan DiPanfilo was kept to only three.”The most important thing was that we weren’t in foul trouble, so that let us keep the pressure on,” Harrington said.The Raiders picked up where they left off at the start of the third quarter as Kyle Stockmal finally broke free of the Fenwick defense, which had kept him scoreless in the opening half. His back-to-back layups extended the lead to 30-18 and forced Kane to call timeout to try to stop the momentum.The move worked momentarily as Fenwick cut the lead back to eight several times – 30-22 and 33-25 – but Marco Coppola’s three helped give the Raiders back their 12 point lead as the third quarter expired.Clifford gave Fenwick a boost at the start of the fourth as his 3-point play cut the lead to nine. But a Morrisey layup and a steal and basket by Kyle Stockmal gave the Raiders their biggest bulge of the game to that point.Watertown’s lead peaked at 48-33 thanks to a pair of free throws from Kyle Stockmal. From there, Fenwick could get no closer than nine as its dreams of a trip to the parquet floor came to an end.”I am proud of the kids and the season they had,” Kane said. “They won their league title, Christmas tournament and the North Shore Invitational. And sure, we’d have liked to have won a state title, but I am so proud of how this team played.”