Gary Larrabee

Hail to the new MIAA Division 2 state champions — the Fabulous, Fantastic, Fenomenal Falcons of Danvers High, 52-49 victors over a courageous Marlborough High unit that made up in the second half 16 points of an 18-point first half deficit but got no further.

The Falcons, after playing their best half of the year over the first 16 minutes, may have played their worst half the second 16 minutes, getting outscored 34-18, but they had what it took at the end, getting four clutch free throws in the last 23 seconds by the team’s two-year MVP, Devan Harris, to save the day.

In completing the first unbeaten/27-0 season in DHS basketball history, the Falcons became the first North Shore squad to finish 27-0 in 35 years, since the 1980 Salem High girls.

They also became the first team to win three state titles in four years  since Charlestown won four in a row from 200 to 2003; the fourth team overall to win three championships in four years dating back to the inception of the divisional tournament format in the early 1970s; and became the first of those four teams to accomplish such a feat with the third title coming after the Falcons moved up a division after winning Division 3 state titles in 2012 and 2013.

The victory also caps the most outstanding five-year run any North Shore hoop program has experienced, keyed by the arrival of new coach John Walsh:

• 13-9 the first year (after the prior year’s team had gone 3-17) under Walsh after a 2-6 start, an 11-3 streak to end the season, including the first time a DHS boys’ team had won two tournament games
• 21-4 the second year and the program’s first state championship, dating back more than 70 years
• 24-2 in Year 3, a second straight Division 3 state title
• 20-3 the fourth year with lone returning starter Vinny Clifford out for the year with a knee injury, but newcomer Devan Harris picking up a large part of the scoring load and emerging as Northeastern Conference (NEC) MVP while leading the Falcons to the Division 2 North final
• 27-0, in the process giving the Falcons their fourth straight NEC “Small” and overall titles
• The numbers after five years are 22-2 in tourney play, 3-1 in North section finals, 3-0 in state finals, 105-18 overall, 93-9 overall the last four years, 20-1 in tournament play the past four years.
• This season and last have been special beyond words because of the gift they have provided the school and the community in light of the tragedy that occurred on school grounds more than a year ago.

“It’s all about the kids and how they’ve played just wonderful basketball from my very first year,” Walsh said after getting off the celebration bus back at Danvers High tonight.

“They have played the games, made the plays, handled the pressure game after game, year after year, and this year’s pressure has been extraordinary because of the high hopes we all had.”

Fact is, and I must correct the humble Walsh, a 35-year-old dynamo of a tactician and handler of young men, that this program would never have achieved such heights, particularly this year, without his Belichikian, Auerbachian, Woodenesque leadership.

No coach could have put these Dandies of Danvers into position to achieve one of the greatest winning stretches, four years’ worth, in area history, except for John Paul Walsh.

Exhibit A: Facing the most talented big man of the entire season in Marlborough 6-6 freshman center Chris Doherty (33 points, 15 rebounds in the Panthers’ Tuesday night state semifinal win), Walsh  put his ace defensive player, junior forward Mike Nestor, giving up four-plus inches, on Doherty. When the ball came inside to Doherty, Nestor got help from either 6-5 Harris or 6-10 Peter Merry.

First half result: Nestor and friends held the multi-talented Doherty to two points, on two free throws at the end of the first quarter. Doherty got four shots off the entire half, committed three turnovers, and the half belonged to the Falcons in every respect.

It was 17-7 after one quarter, 33-15 at the half, the Falcons’ offense sparked by three three-point bombs from super sub Rudy Rashad Francois (11 points total) and the defense playing marvelously, keyed by the job on Doherty. It was a zone and/or mash-to-man masterpiece. Marlborough shot 3-for-20 the first half.

Danvers’ one negative? Harris was whistled for his third personal with 4:49 left in the second, when the score was 22-10. The Falcons jacked up the advantage to 18 by intermission, thanks to the smooth quarterbacking of Devonn Allen. But the power forward had to play cautiously from there on in.

The Falcons played so well the first half in every respect that they were able to weather their best shooter, Vinny Clifford, being shut out from the floor. But the senior captain was saving his best for the second half.

At halftime, Danvers had committed five turnovers to their rival’s 10.

But everyone in the DCU Centrum crowd of 4500 knew Danvers could not keep up its near-perfect play for two more quarters, nor that Marlborough would suffer through another miserable 16 minutes. And everyone was right.

The third quarter started out ominously for the Falcons, who committed two turnovers and shot an air ball to begin, while MHS hit their first three shots and a foul shot to draw within 34-22.

Clifford responded with a three-point play off a 16-footer, but the Panthers, led by Doherty (11 points in the quarter) kept hammering away while the Falcons committed turnovers and missed shots that had not occurred the first half.

Doherty finished with 15 points, but with only two foul shots in the fourth quarter, when he shot blanks (0-for-4 from the floor, all inside moves that did not connect because of the Falcons’ contesting every attempt).

Clifford’s huge three-pointer from the right side off an out-of-bounds feed from Allen made it 39-26 and Merry’s in-close bucket at 1:56 made it 41-29, the session ending 41-32. Marlborough had cut the halftime deficit in half.

Several players on both sides played much of the second half in foul trouble, i,e. three foul or more, including Doherty, two of his mates, Harris, Merry, Clifford, Nestor and Allen. Yet, no one fouled out on the Falcons’ side, though their fourth quarter play was as shaky as their third quarter.

When Harris made a 10-foot right baseline jumper to begin the fourth, the Falcon faithful felt better. But not for long. Marlborough hit a three to draw within 43-35, the Falcons had more trouble scoring, except for Clifford’s top-of-the-key swisher that made it 47-39 with 4:19 left. That would be DHS’s final field goal. And a vital one.

When Jose deLaCriuz’s trey brought the game to a near-climax at 47-44 with 3:07 left, and Liam Shanahan scored on a lay-up with 1:50 left, drawing MHS to within 48-46,  Danvers’ diehards were praying for a hero to come forward.

But two missed Danvers front ends of 1-and-1 with 1:25 and 52 second left kept the score at 48-46. Thankfully Marlborough missed eight of its last nine shots, one a super clutch block by Merry,  except for the meaningless field goal it scored right before the final horn, and young Mr. Harris, via Cincinnati and Hingham, saved his mates with two swished foul shots with 23 seconds left and again with 9.4 seconds left.

As he had done in the epic Lynn English game, a 79-78 victory thanks to his foul shot after time expired, Harris was the man of the moment.

Despite an overall nightmarish second half, filled with missed easy shots, nine turnovers and vastly improved Marlborough offensive play (ex.: Doherty finding openings he hadn’t found in the first half), the fabulous, fantastic, phenomenal Falcons had made the biggest plays at the very end —  garnering them their third state championship in four years.

Their first half of brilliant  basketball had, in fact, been too much for Marlborough (21-4) to overcome.

Harris led the Falcons’s balanced scoring with 12 points, followed by Francois’s enormous 11 points off the bench, all in the first half, Allen’s nine (and 7 assists), including a three from the deep right corner in the early going, Merry with 7 (8 rebounds, 4 blocks), Nestor with four and Andrew Dunn’s one at the end of the first half.

They have met their date with destiny, their date with history, and emerged 27-0.

MIAA Division 2 state champions. Authors of magical magnificence.

The Day has finally arrived.

Championship Day for the Fabulous Falcons of Danvers High School.

The Day the Falcons reach a pinnacle of perfection one would never have imagined just a few years ago.

It will take a fantastic effort today against 21-3 Marlboro in the DCU Center in Worcester starting at 4 p.m. But this is their day and no one else’s as they become MIAA Division 2 state champions.

The Fabulous Falcons’ third state championship in four years. One of only four teams to accomplish such a title dominance in MIAA history. The only school to do it in two different divisions while moving up a level. And only the second North Shore team ever to finish 27-0.

The Day Coach John Walsh and his staff will lead at their very best.

The Day Peter Merry will have a career two-way performance pitted against a worthy adversary.

The Day Devan Harris puts a fitting finale on the most spectacular two-year career in DHS basketball history.

The Day Vinny Clifford caps a glorious senior year comeback following knee surgery with one of his finest games at both ends of the floor.

The Day Mike Nestor solidifies his role as the team’s most unsung hero with yet another dynamic defensive performance.

The Day Devonn Allen plays yet another marvelous all-around game as quarterback/playmaker, outside/inside scoring threat and defensive stopper/ballhawk deluxe.

The Day Rashad Francois provides a repeat splendid spark off the bench with his eclectic play from all angles — three-point bomber, basket penetrator, defensive demon.

The Day Tre Crittendon and the rest of the bench provide the exact kind of support, on the court and on the sideline, the regulars need to complete this dream of a season.

The Day the Falcons’ fandom shines like never before with thunderous support from their DCU seats

On to 27-0. The perfect second bookend to go with unbeaten neighbor Hamilton-Wenham’s Division 4 state title victory from last night.

He will tell you the players make all the shots, grab all the rebounds, deliver all the smooth passes.

First it was the Bates-McKenna-Amico-Connors-Martin-George Merry nucleus spanning the 2012-2013 Northeastern Conference and MIAA Division 3 State championships.

Then came the 2014-2015 group that has comprised Beck-McCarthy-Clifford-Allen-Harris-Peter Merry: another pair of NEC titles, a spot in the Division 2 North title game last year, a stunning 20-3 record and now the season to top all seasons.

A 26-0 record, No. 1 ranking in the Boston Globe Top 20 poll at the end of the regular season and the opportunity Saturday to finish 27-0 and take home the Division 2 state championship if they can knock off 21-3 Marlborough at the DCU Center (4 p.m. start).

And don’t forget that victory tomorrow will also place the Fabulous Falcons into the most select of company among state champions since the MIAA went to the division format in the 1970s; i.e. they will become the very first team to win three state titles in four years in two different divisions moving up. They also will  become only the fourth school to win three titles in a four-year span along with Cambridge, Commerce and Charlestown.

One last item: a victory Saturday makes the Danvers boys only the second North Shore team ever to finish 27-0. The other? The 1980 Salem High Girls, coached by Tim Shea, led on the floor by All-Scholastic Marie Grant.

Give all the credit to the players, the coach will say. But we know better.

For as amazing a sequence of players have blessed the Danvers High varsity boys basketball program these past four years, it is unlikely they would have attained saucy astounding heights of success without the guidance of the head coach — one John Paul Walsh.

His journey as a basketball coach has been well documented in this space. After playing as an all-star at Malden Catholic and getting a short stint of playing time at Rivier College, he thought about coaching.

He got the chance to serve as a varsity assistant for five years for his cousin, the head coach at Watertown, then applied for the Danvers job and was hired by then-athletic director John Sullivan.

The boys’ hoop program had been in the dumps for some time and no one took serious notice when another new faces came to town trying to reverse the Falcons’ fortunes.

But at 31, in his first year, he turned a 2-6 start into a 13-9 finish with two tournament wins — the first time a Danvers team had ever won two post-season games.

This guy must know what he’s doing, the small faction of DHS basketball cognoscenti observed. But let’s not get carried away with this young guy, the added. Let’s see what he can do from here.

What Walsh “could do from here” was not only reach for the stars, but succeed in taking this unheralded program, one without a Northeastern Conference title since 1975, to heights the most eternal of all DHS basketball optimists could never have imagined.

As noted above: four straight NEC titles, back-to-back Division 3 state titles, Division 2 North section title game runner-up, and now, in 2015, the opportunity to achieve perfection and a Division 2 state championship.

Yes, the players play the game, score the points, defend the other team, and so forth.

But ask any of the players who have worn the Royal Blue and White while directed by John Walsh, and they will tell you his coaching in practice and games made all the difference in the world in creating this never-before-seen run of basketball excellence north of Boston.

Walsh is a serious young man, one who admits to having been blessed with pretty much everything a man of his age could ever expect: good health, a beautiful family (wife and three young children) and a rewarding job.

Then, to have been given the opportunity to take over a struggling program and take it to dreamlike success, well, it’s more than he deserves, he says modestly. But, of course, he is wrong.

John Paul Walsh does deserve this coaching success. Combining his experience as a player and assistant coach, his dedication to the game’s principles, disciplines and nuances, and his unmatched ability to handle pressure time during games geared to strategy or substitutions, Walsh has quickly risen to the top of the coaching fraternity in Massachusetts high school basketball.

Aided by a sharp group of assistants, Walsh is often seen during game action crouched in front his bench, surveying the action, turning to top aid Mark Garrity and determining his next move or next spoken word to his players as they fly up and down the court.

When the moment requires it, he’ll stand up and voice a concern to an official or speak instructions to one of his players. Most important, at all times Walsh is under total control, even when he is attempting to drive home a point to the official.

He was, fact be know, under pressure even his freshman year, when he was hoping to improve on the previous year’s team’s 3-17 mark.

Year 2’s 21-4 state championship surge shocked everybody except Walsh, his staff and players. From that point on, every team the Falcons have faced have pointed to that game as the highlight of their schedule. Yet, the Falcons kept winning and winning and winning, especially the big games in the regular season and the MIAA tournament.

Walsh has made the Falcon basketballers winners in every respect. The players believe in themselves. They believe in their coach. They believe in the new championship tradition that Walsh has established.

Not that he needed confirmation after winning successive state titles, but Walsh cemented his position in the Bay State coaching fraternity with last year’s 20-3 team that had no starters returning once Vinny Clifford suffered a debilitating knee injury the summer previous. The transfer of Devan Harris from Hingham High to Danvers High gave the Falcons what proved to be an MVP-level forward. Nonetheless, the way Walsh was able to incorporate Harris into the DHS scheme and bring the other players along, led by senior Kieran Beck, was a near-masterpiece of coaching.

The only program in the state that compares with what Walsh has accomplished in Danvers is the Putnam squad from Springfield that goes for a third straight Division 1 state championship tomorrow.

Clad in his white shirt and tie, Walsh will be prowling the Danvers sideline tomorrow at the DCU Center eyeing a date with history. In fact, he has already made a great deal more history this season with a 26-0 record. But the sweetness of those first 26 wins will only remain pure and timeless if they can do it one  more time, pressure be damned, tomorrow against Marlborough.

John Paul Walsh will do everything  in his power to  ensure No. 27 happens as scheduled.

Random thoughts as Danvers High’s Fabulous Falcons continue preparations for their “Date With Destiny” Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. in the DCU Center, Worcester, against 21-3 Marlborough. At stake: The MIAA Division 2 state championship.

• The one player most apparently standing in the way of the Falcons’ first-ever perfect season (27-0) and third state title in four years is Marlborough freshman center Chris Doherty. The 6-6 pivotman had 33 points (13 from the foul line) and 15 rebounds in his team’s 65-58 victory over South Hadley in their Central/Western Mass. state semifinal in Springfield. Doherty poses the sternest test Danvers’s 6-10 Peter Merry has faced all season. I doubt those 33 points and 15 rebounds came against anyone with the size, defensive and shot-blocking talents of Merry, who will be playing his final game as a Falcon. The Doherty-Merry matchup looms as a fascinating storyline, but I like Merry’s cha nces of gaining the upper hand early and keeping it against the young Mr. Doherty.
• The other two double-figure scorers for Marlborough against South Hadley were brothers, Owen (12) and Joe (10) Cappadona.
• Marlborough’s three losses came to St. Bernard’s, 63-60, Westborough, 55-38, and St. John’s of Shrewsbury, 71-60.
• Marlborough’s defense is a force. It has held nine teams to 40 points or less. Winner of the Midland B League with an 11-1 mark, it brings a seven-game win streak into the game while averaging 56.1 points per game and allowing an average of 45.7.
• Nothing could have been finer, after Danvers’ 51-40 victory over Bp. Feehan in the TD Garden Tuesday night, than to see the thermometer hit the mid-50s the next afternoon.
• It is understandable that Danvers fans are experiencing a glorious high these days, following nail-biting tourney wins over Brighton, Arlington and Bp. Feehan. How can the Falcons lose Game 27 after winning the first 26, they ask. Well, teams in the exact same circumstance have been defeated before in the DCU Center, crushing their hopes of a perfect season. The Falcons have no intention of being such a victim.
• Vinny Clifford and Devan Harris join Merry as DHS seniors playing their final game for the Royal Blue and White.
• There is no reason to believe that the “Big Three,” along with sophomore point guard Devonn Allen, junior off guard Mike Nestor and sixth man Rashad Francois won’t embrace this game with devastating efficiency at both ends of the floor. I won’t be surprised in the least if they play the most total game they’ve played all year.
• Head coach John Walsh gives the Falcons a major advantage on the bench, as he has shown throughout the playoffs.
• All these Danvers players, with the exception of Harris, who was playing in Hingham, got a taste of what it feels like to win a championship as observers in 2012 and 2013. Now it’s their turn to reach the summit.

The Danvers High Fabulous Falcons’ basketball team was in “prime time” Tuesday night in TD Garden, and when it was time to put up or shut upon the Division 2 state semifinal battle with Bp. Feehan, the Falcons pout up like great champions do.

After watching a 40-31 fourth quarter advantage sliced to 40-36 with only 3:41 remained, the Falcons, in the form of several faces, responded by getting big plays from four different players down the stretch, in the process silencing the raucous Shamrocks’ following and delivering a 51-40 victory.

The Fabulous Falcons, in improving to an unprecedented 26-0 record, a mark never before seen by a Danvers basketball team, earns the right to take one final step for immortality in the state championship final Saturday at 4 p.m, in Worcester’s DCU Center against Marlborough, a 65-58 winner over South Hadley today.

A win Saturday would close out the season at 27-0, the second Greater Salem team ever to accomplish that feat (with the 1980 Salem High girls). It would also make the Falcons the fourth team in Massachusetts high school history to win three state titles in four years since the division format was introduced in the 1970s, and the first to do it while moving up a division during that time frame. The Falcons won Division 3 state titles in 2012 and 2013.

Coach John Walsh’s dreammakers almost got sidetracked, though, when a 34-21 lead early in the third was reduced to 37-31 after three quarters, and then the team from Attleboro made yet another run in the finale.

But at 40-36, the Falcons showed why they are a team comprised of champions of the highest order.

After experiencing a shaky start to the fourth quarter personally (losing the ball twice in the lane while going for the basket, having one shot blocked and missing a shot in close), Devan Harris (16 points) scored on a gorgeous reverse layup to make it 42-36.

Then Vinny Clifford, on a nice feed from Devonn Allen, scored on a floating drive to the basket, got fouled and made the foul shot to make it 45-38 with 2:50 left.

Mike Nestor (a defensive star with the job he did on the three-inches-taller Frank Oftring) made a steal soon thereafter that set up a Harris foul shot (46-38 with 2:29 left), and Allen finished off a nifty give-and-go with Nestor to all but clinch it at 48-38 with 1:35 left.

The Falcons would not let Bp. Feehan (19-6) make yet another charge, as had been the case under similar circumstances during the Comcast/Arbella tournament in mid-February that ended with a 60-56 Danvers triumph.

Danvers thus won for the third time in four years in TD Garden under Walsh’s masterful leadership and will now try and make it 3-for-3 in state championship games Saturday.

All six Danvers players make vital contributions. Allen joined Harris in double figures with 13 points, including two three-pointers in the jittery-filled first quarter, added three steals, five assists and enjoyed a vastly improved floor game from the Arlington North section final win.

Peter Merry was his wonderfully intimidating self inside all night defensively, his seven points, five blocks and eight rebounds not doing justice to the overall game he had. Peter and comrades collectively played some marvelous man0to-man defense that limited Bp. Feehan to a horrendous 12-for-48 effort from there field (25 percent).

Nestor was his usual pesky self on defense, causing several turnovers and making some key plays in offense (as noted above).

Clifford made two huge buckets the second, the one already alluded to, as well as a driving layup through traffic in the third that peaked DHS’ lead at 34-21.

Lastly, sixth man Rashad Francois hit a gigantic three-pointer midway through there third that halted a Bp. Feehan run that had close a nine-pooint halftime gap to 25-21 less than three minutes into the third.

Harris’s presence on the floor provided the usual dividends, but he missed some significant time after getting slapped with his third folk 45 second short of the end of the second quarter.

Yet, the Falcons were able to once again hold the fort when Harris was stuck on the bench, as they did after Merry fouled out in the first meeting.

No mater what the situation, Walsh and charges have always found a way to deal with misfortune.

This game was no masterpiece. Neither team shot the ball well. Both teams committed way too many turnovers (Danvers 16, Bp. Feehan 17). The turnovers and 25 percent shooting accuracy are both a testament to the Falcons’ fierce man-to-man defense, holding the opponent to a mere 40 points in the biggest game those Shamrocks will probably ever play.

So the Falcons move to 102-19 in Walsh’s five years as coach, 21-2 in post-season play, with a third state championship clearly in their sights Saturday in Worcester.

Let the countdown to perfection continue.

The magic a timeout can create.

The undefeated Hamilton-Wenham Regionals boys basketball team put its 23-0 record on the line in the Eastern Mass. final Monday afternoon in TD Garden against a quick and athletic Cathedral team, and after 10 minutes it looked like the Cape Ann League champion Generals had met their match.

Cathedral owned a 16-9 lead 2:15 into the second quarter when Coach Doug Hoak called timeout.

“I told the kids to settle in, relax,” Hoak, the Massachusetts Hall of Fame baseball coach-turned hoops wizard, explained later. “We were missing shots we usually make and I said we’d start making those shots. I also said it was time to switch from man to our 2-3 zone defense; make it tougher for them to get open outside shots off.”

The timeout and its accompanying strategy worked wonders. The Generals outscored Cathedral 13-2 the rest of the quarter, keyed by three-pointers in the last half minute by Nick DiMarino and Max Zegarowski, took a 22-18 lead into intermission, then ran roughshod on their opponents.

The start of the third quarter was simply more of the same, so that after five-plus minutes H-W had bolted to a 30-5 spurt for a 39-21 lead. In the process the Generals held Cathedral (17-8) scoreless for more than eight minutes. In fact, Cathedral was limited to  nine points combined in the middle periods.

Max Zegarowski’s fraternal twin brother Marcus, as usual, sparked the Generals’ offense with 25 points, followed by Nolan Wilson’s 11 (and superb overall inside game at both ends).

An unforgettable season comes to a conclusion Friday night at WPI at 7:45 when H-W shoots for a 25-0 campaign in the state title game against the winner of tonight’s matchup between Central Mass. rep Sutton and western Mass. standard bearer Hopkins, also at 7:45 at WPI.

What a finish it would be Friday if the Hall of Fame baseball coach could pitch a perfect basketball season (25-0). They are almost there.

Flying into TD Garden Tuesday night (7:30 tap off) for their Eastern Massachusetts Division 2 title game with Bp. Feehan, Danvers High’s Fabulous Falcons have every reason to be cautiously optimistic, but not a single reason to be cocky or overconfident.

After winning a program record 25th game (without a loss) Saturday in the Division 2 North title game barnburner over Arlington, 50-47, at the Tsongas Center, the Falcons know all too well they have been most fortunate to slip past the Spy Ponders (24-2) and before them Brighton (65-58).

They played far from at peak efficiency in either of those games, yet emerged victorious. Most significantly, they are hoping that point guard Devonn Allen and shooting forward Vinny Clifford, though they played solid all-around games and Allen made the offensive play of the game to set up the game-tying and game-winning free throws with 21 seconds remaining, snap out of mild two-game offensive slumps. This observer expects both all-star-level performers to play among their best offensive games of the season on the Garden parquet.

In putting their 25-0 record on the line against Bp. Feehan, the Falcons face the Attleboro Catholic school for the second time in less than a month, following a 60-56 Danvers win on February 16 in the first round of the Comcast/Arbella Board 27 tournament at Woburn High.

The Falcons led all the way in that one, including a 580-47 margin with 1:05 remaining before Feehan hit three threes and scored on a fastbreak drive to draw within 58-56 with 12 seconds left. Tre Crittendon, who played a major role off the bench in the second half, hit two foul shots with eight seconds left to ice the game, after teammates had missed five freebies in a row in the final minute to allow Feehan to provide a scare.

Needless to state, Coach John Walsh will remind his charges that Feehan will provide a major test, especially after battling the Falcons so intensely the first time, rallying first from a 17-7 early deficit to within 24-22 at half-time, then from 48-34 back with 4:40 remaining.

Bp. Feehan (19-5) made it to the Garden as the No. 5 seed in the Section by holding off Oliver Ames, 58-54, Saturday in Brockton in the Division 2 South final. Center Frank Oftring played a major role for the winners, holding Oliver Ames big scorer Ryan Carney to 4-for-14 shooting from the field and leading a decisive Feehan presence on defense and the boards with four blocks. Meanwhile, guard David Carchedi was a key offensive contributor the second half with 11 of his 12 points

It is probably an indication of a team’s greatness when it can win the biggest games of the year against two of the strongest teams they’ve faced all season — Brighton and Arlington — even when it’s not running on all cylinders. But it is unlikely they can pull off a third such feat in succession, so here’s hoping that all of the Falcons’ key players bring their “A” games to the big city Tuesday night.

Two sidelights:

1. The Falcons are on the verge of setting MIAA basketball history on two fronts. One, if they can beat Bp. Feehan and then win Saturday’s state championship game in Worcester, they would become the very FIRST school to win three titles in a four year span that includes moving up a division in the process, noting the Falcons won Division 3 state titles in 2012 and 2013. Secondly, by winning these last two games, they would become only the fourth school in ANY division to win three state titles in a four-year timeframe. The others have been Cambridge (Div. 1, 1979-80-81), Charlestown (Div. 2, 2000-2004, 4 straight) and Commerce of Springfield (Div. 2, 1976-77-78).
2. Senior power forward deluxe Devan Harris, who joined the team last year as a junior after transferring from Hingham High, already has become the first Danvers player, boy or girl, to score 900 points in only two seasons. He has 907. Harris, who has carried the Falcons’ offense with 26 points in each of the last two games, is already the second leading scorer in DHS boys’ history, trailing only Ed Gieras, the first — and only boy — to reach the 1000-point milestone.

When the Danvers High Boys’ basketball team’s dreams of a perfect season hung in the balance Saturday night in the Tsongas Center, any one of several Falcons could have delivered the heroics.

But it was the youngest among them, sophomore point guard Devonn Allen, who provided the one mighty play that led to the Falcons’ pulsating 50-47 victory over Middlesex League champ Arlington in the Division 2 North final.

After the Spy Ponders had taken their first lead of the second half at 47-46 on sophomore Colin McNamara’s three-point bomb with 1:25 remaining, fast forward to the 30-second mark.

Allen, who’d struggled in the backcourt and been held to four points, found a seam and dribbled coast to coast after a missed three attempt by the same Mr. McNamara, was fouled on the shot bid in close, then had the entire Danvers High basketball world on his shoulders. He needed to make one shot to tie, two to take the lead.

So all the cool-as-a-customer Allen, who’d played a terrific defensive  game, did, as the clock showed only 21 seconds remaining, was sink both free throws to regain the lead, 48-47, an advantage they did not relinquish.

From there Arlington (24-2) missed two long shots, one from their top player, forward Miles Robinson with about 12 seconds left, then, after Danvers had apparently lost the rebound out of bounds, McNamara air-balled another 3-point attempt, Danvers’ Devan Harris grabbing the rebound, getting fouled immediately, and sinking both ends of a 1-and-1 with 3.5 seconds left for the final margin. Robinson missed wildly one last attempt as the horn went off.

It should also be noted that the Falcons’ rugged defense held Arlington to three points in the last 2:40 after the game had been tied at 44.

The Falcons had won their 25th game of the year without a loss and earned the right to play familiar foe Bp. Feehan Tuesday night in TD Garden at 7:30 for the Eastern Massachusetts Division 2 title. The winner advances to the state final Saturday at the DCU Center in Worcester at 4 p.m. against the Central/West victor. Bp. Feehan, a 60-56 loser to Danvers in the first round of the Comcast/Arbella Board 27 Tournament back in mid-February, moved to 18-5 by defeating Oliver Ames, 58-53, for the Division 2 South title Saturday

The Perils of Pauline have nothing on the tension-packed, emotion-charged wins the Falcons have pulled off in their last two games, first their Herculean effort required to beat Brighton at Woburn in the North semifinal, then this ferocious defense battle with Arlington.

The game was close all the way, though Danvers owed 11-6 early, trailed 15-11 after once quarter, trailed 23-18 midway through the second but grabbed a 29-25 intermission lead keyed by Harris’s’ 10 second quarter points en route to another mammoth scoring night, 26 points total, including his team’s first 10 points of the fourth quarter and 12 of the team’s 14  total for the quarter.

The Falcons had chances to extend a five-point lead in the third quarter but couldn’t do it, and with defense ruling the eight minutes, Danvers remained ahead 36-32 moving to the climactic fourth quarter.

Pivotman Peter Merry (8 points, 6 blocks, 9 rebounds) had been a huge force in the first quarter, when he scored all of his points, but he had to sit for some time after getting his second personal foul early in the second, his third with 59 seconds left in the third, and when he was assessed his fourth personal 58 seconds into the fourth quarter.

But each time his teammates hekld the fort, never allowed a momentum swing, usually maintained a modest cushion, until Arlington inched its way back in from a 42-35 deficit with 5:16 left.

The Spy Ponders finally knotted the score at 44 on Matt Moroney”s steal at the top of the key and all-the-way layup with 2:40 left. But Harris, whose value to this team could never be overstated, drove to the hoop at the other end 25 seconds later for a 46-44 DHS edge.

The rest of the nerve-wracking finish has been noted above, except that both teams missed chances to make big plays that could have changed the way the last 90 seconds evolved.

Danvers survived despite making back-to-back turnovers (18 total to Arlington’s 11), the first of which set up McNamara’s lead-changing three with 1:25 to go.

The collective heart of this Fabulous Falcons’ team gets larger and larger every game. As does Coach John Walsh’s knack for calling the right plays at the right time and making the correct subs at the correct time.

They pulled this one out despite having only one player in double figures (Harris’s 26, to go along with seven boards and two blocks), an otherwise repeat poor shooting night, which they also survived against Brighton.

One of the keys in making up for those two major shortcomings (field goal percentage and turnovers) was another great job at the foul line (11 for 13; they took only two foul shots the second half until Allen and Harris sank the biggest free throws of the game in the last 21 seconds).

A second key was the phenomenal job Allen and sixth man Rashad Francois did on Robinson, who was held to 11 points, four in txhe first half, and only two field goals.

The Falcons were short on three-pointers as well, usually one of their best offensive weapons. They made only two, both by Vinny Clifford (8 points, cool shooting but solid play on defense and reliable ball-handling/passing when needed.

Great teams find ways to win no matter what the circumstances, no matter what the in-game setbacks might be. This Danvers Falcons’ unit is proving to be just that. Greatness personified.

Thus, history is their friend and foe with two games standing their way of a 27-0 state championship season, which would match the record notched by the 1980 Salem High girls en route to their only Division 1 state title.

The Falcons can become, I believe, the first team to win one (in their case two in a row) Division 3 title, then  move up two years later and win the Division 2 state title.

Walsh is now 102-19 in his five years as Danvers coach, 20-2 in tournament play. May the history-making resume Tuesday at North Station.

I hadn’t seen the unbeaten Hamilton-Wenham Generals since an early-season rout at Masconomet. But what I saw Friday night in the Division 4 North final at Tewksbury High was just what I expected of the now 23-0 locals: an easy triumph, 73-44, over the defending champion St. Clement’s Anchormen.

The first perfect season in H-W boys’ hoop history will be on the line — and from this observer’s perspective is all but guaranteed — when the Generals face 17-7 Cathedral, a 74-59 winner Friday night over Southeastern Regional, in the Eastern Mass. Division 4 final Monday at TD Garden at 4 p.m.

The Generals will have one more step to take if they win  Monday. They will face for the state championship Friday at 7:45 at WPI the winner of the Sutton-Hopkins game that pits the Central and West winners.

H-W coach Doug Hoak has an absolute monster on his hands; a nine-player-deep roster of solid players, led by the two Zegaraowski sophomore twins, guard Marcus (21) and forward Max (18). They never gave St. Clement’s, grossly overmatched, a chance last night. It was only respectable after one quarter, 17-8. But  by halftime, at 46-16, the blow-out was complete. The second half was routine.

It was like the varsity against the jayvees (or maybe the freshmen). H-W was a Division 4 team playing like a Division 2 team that could give next-door neighbor Danvers (24-0 heading into its Division 2 North final today at Lowell against 24-1 Arlington) a run for its money.

The second quarter said it all. The Generals made their first three shots, all three-pointers, made three more treys by the half and Hoak, recently inducted into the Massachusetts High School Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame, is now on the verge of a state title in baskets. He’s already got one from his years guiding the H-W diamond dandies. That would be a first, I believe, in the modern era of North Shore coaching.

So it will come down to Monday’s 4 p.m. showdown; I believe H-W’s second  foray ever into the Garden (new or old version). The first came in 1971.

And, I will be shocked if the Generals, unquestionably one of the best squads in Massachusetts Division 4 history, doesn’t win by at least 15 points.

It couldn’t happen to a nicer — or more qualified — coach/gentleman than Doug Hoak.

Sadly, it may be the next to last game for the Zegarowski twins in H-W uniforms. Rumors are rampant that they will be heading off to private school for their final two years of high school in hopes of securing college basketball scholarships. Marcus is dead-on for a scholarship. Max needs some work but has the tools to be a scholarship player as well.

On an aside, if Danvers cooperates today and beats Arlington, next-door neighbors will be battling for bigger rewards in the Garden, H-W Monday, Danvers Tuesday at 7:30. Maybe the two communities could hold a joint celebration if their teams win out.

The members of the Danvers High boys basketball family that took in Thursday night’s Arlington victory over Tewksbury, 60-52, at Woburn, know exactly what they’re facing in Saturday’s Division 2 North final at Tsongas Arena in Lowell (4:15 tap).

The 24-0 Falcons, fresh off an exhilarating 65-58 semifinal win over Brighton, not take on a team that dominated the stronger-rated-than-the-Northeastern Conference Middlesex League. The Spy Ponders, better known for their former powerhouse hockey program, is new to the basketball big stage, while the Fabulous Falcons are playing in their fourth straight North final.

No  matter. Arlington is there real deal, worthy of its No. 2 seed and its No. 7 ranking in the latest Boston Globe Top 20. And take note that the Spy Ponders blasted Marblehead at the start of the MIAA tournament, whereas Marblehead gave Danvers two very close NEC games and could have won either or both.

Arlington is a senior-laden (11 seniors) team that had won 20 straight bedford falling to Arlington Catholic, 64-58, in a non-league face-off right before the tournament.

The Spy Ponders are led by 6-3 senior forward and Middlesex League co-MVP Miles Robinson ((15 points, 13 rebounds versus Tewksbury), senior Frank Roche (10 points, 7 rebounds versus Tewksbury), senior rebounder/defender Matt Moroney and senior guard Joshua Lee (13 points), who hit a clutch three and six straight foul shots to help clinch the victory.

Like Brighton, Arlington likes to bang the offensive boards. The Spy Ponders out rebounded Tewksbury 20-4 in the first half, grabbed nine offensive boards for 12 points, but also committed 11 turnovers while taking a 32-28 halftime lead.

Comparing scores may not mean much, but Somerville, a 59-53 neutral court victim of Danvers back in late December, lost to Arlington at Somerville 51-44 and at Arlington by 16.

Arlington whipped Marblehead, 63-41, in the second round of the North Section.

So now Danvers, after beating the best of the Boston City League in Brighton, now must dispose of the best the Middlesex League has to offer in Arlington if it wishes to make its third TD Garden/Eastern Mass. final visit in four years.

Experience is certainly on Danvers’ side when it comes to coping with the Tsongas Arena pressure. Every team that plays at Tsongas Saturday knows it’s playing for a chance to play in  the home of the Boston Celtics come Monday or Tuesday. In Danvers’s case, a win thrusts the Fabulous Falcons into the prime time Tuesday night 7:30 slot against the winner of the South final between Bp. Feehan and Oliver Ames. Danvers beat Bp. Feehan a couple weeks ago 60-56 in the semifinal round of the Comcast/Arbella Board 27 tournament at Woburn.

Danvers took a lot of positives away after the Brighton game, their second biggest win of the year after the Lynn English 79-78 epic road victory back on February 18.

The most provocative positive, actually based on negatives, was that the Falcons were able to beat a potential state champion team from Brighton despite:

• An off game from sensational sophomore point guard Devonn Allen, who was in foul trouble throughout, sat for two long stretches and scored four points
• A sub-par shooting game from possibly the best outside shooter on the North Shore, if not Eastern Mass., when he is hot, namely Vinny Clifford, but his 12 first half points (with three 3s) loomed large in staking Danvers to a 34-27 halftime cushion. He finished 5-for-18 shooting overall, 3-for-12 in threes. Clifford likely will bounce back with a magnificent shooting game against Arlington.
• The fouling out of 6-10 defensive master Peter Merry, but not before playing a major role with 13 points, four blocks and 11 rebounds.
• Lastly, the inability for game high scorer Devan Harrtis (26 points) to score in the frantic final four minutes. He made his final point on a free throw with 4:07 left for a 53-44 cushion (even had a three-point bid blocked latter on). Brighton drew within 57-52 with 1:48 left, but no closer.

So considering that any of those factors could have contributed to Danvers’ demise, they in fact did not. And the Falcons were still able to beat a mighty opponent.

It’s unlikely any of those factors will figure into the Arlington game. Allen and Clifford just might lead the Danvers offensive assault. Merry and likely repeat Northeastern Conference MVP and All-Scholastic Harris will be their reliable selves at both ends, defensive whiz Mike Nestor will deliver as usual and sixth and seventh men Rashad Francois and Tre Crittendon will repeat their outstanding showings against Brighton.

From this humble observer’s  perspective, with admitted prejudice, these Fabulous Falcons are a team of destiny; one in position to become, I believe, the first to win state championships in two different divisions in a three-year span in which they moved up from Division 3 to Division 2.

The next step comes Saturday at Lowell.