BEVERLY (MASS.) – The underclassmen corp in the NEPSAC was extremely strong on Wednesday night during the opening round of the league’s playoffs. Chris Turner, Mark Lyons, Isaiah Thomas, Emmanuel Negedu and Devin Ebanks all brought big showings.

Bridgton Academy 75 – Phillips Exeter 62
Only a surprising eight-point lead most of the way for No. 1 seed Bridgton Academy. Give Exeter credit as it was hitting plenty of the jumpshots that it was solely relying on for offense in the second half.

Prep MVP candidate Justin Burrell (St. John’s) knocked knees early in the first half and said he struggled playing through it.

When they finally needed to get it going, Bridgton got Paul Becklens, finishing with 17 points, to step up and hit three straight buckets in crunch time. Rashad Green (N.C. State) had a similar run to start the second half, scoring nine himself.

Paris Horne (St. John’s) and Greg Hill each had nine points as well.

Winchendon 72 – New Hampton 63
Villanova bound Malcolm Grant hit key free throws down the stretch and frontcourt talents Papa Lo (UMass) and Dartaye Ruffin sank some unexpected, key jumpers from free throw line-extended, sending Winchendon to the semi-finals to meet Bridgton.

Grant had 18 points while breakout junior Chris Turner helped build the early Winchendon edge, scoring 23 points in the same fashion he’s done all year – off the dribble to the rim, baseline jumpers, and his customary deep ball.

Texas Tech recruit Darryl Ashford scored 14 points and got it going a little too late, scoring 10 in the final eight minutes.

South Kent 86 – Northfield Mount Hermon 62
This was an early wrap with South Kent putting the boots to NMH early in the first half, taking out their go-to man in Tyrone Nash (Notre Dame) and

Isaiah Thomas 32 points
Mark Lyons 22 points
Jerrell Williams 17 points
Terrel Williams 16 points

Brewster Academy – St. Thomas More
St. Thomas travels well
Jumped em

Ebanks two rim-out

But Emmanuel Negedu was starting the bus. It was bad enough when he had two dunks that almost saw the rim get ripped off and came up with a block that went over the St. Thomas More bench and into the crowd. Then, after a St. Thomas More score and another hoop off a turnover that cut it to eight, Negedu was at the end of a press break and put another one down.

St. Thomas More wasn’t quitting though and it came back to keep it at eight with a score in their secondary break. Texas recruit Dogus Balbay missed both free throws, and it seemed like St. Thomas More had another shot until that man Negedu snatched another board and threw down.

As if the twists weren’t enough, Devin Ebanks came off a screen at the top of the key to catch and bury a triple, then raced back down court and blocked/hacked with a no-call Craig Brackins’ dunk attempt, keeping it 82-75 with just over a minute remaining.

Tristan Thompson was fouled on the inbounds and hit 1-of-2 free throws. Yet again, St. Thomas More hung in and came up with a loose ball after Brackins’ swatted a shot inside. It was Ebanks on the recovery and he was fouled by Thompson.

Then it was really on. Ebanks hit the free throw, Brewster had a scoreless possession, and Drew Zito banged a three for St. Thomas More to make it 84-81. STM was told to foul, didn’t, and Ebanks was left with a 3-on-1 to defend and got to Negedu late, where he dunked it in and was fouled. However, he missed the free throw.

Next trip down for St. Thomas More – they hit another three. This time it was Steven Brown, hitting his fifth of the game from beyond the arc.

From there it was a free-throw battle with Tristan Thompson hitting another two, and Marquis Jones hitting two for STM.

Both teams were wearing out their welcome as Brewster coughed it up on the inbounds with a five-second count, and on their next possession it was a step-on-the-sideline by Thompson that gave it back to St. Thomas More.

The inbounds play went array though and the ball ended up in Brewster’s hands on a break, where Negedu followed a missed lay-up with more thunder. St. Thomas More had one last shot, and of course they hit it. It was No. 6 for Brown and we had a tie game now at 89 with five seconds remaining. Brewster’s last chance was an Andre McFarland pull up near the block, and Ebanks put it back in his face.

Overtime began with a McFarland score inside and one from Ebanks down the other end. Both teams had some feel-out possessions with broken plays and missed shots, and then the turnover plague hit Brewster again as they had a five-second count in the backcourt go against them. For STM, it was the hot-hand Brown that missed his next two triple tries.

Brackins missed a back-down shot on Ebanks but Andre Walker broke the spell after a rebound at 1:45 and with a leaner off the glass to put Brewster up 93-91.

It was Ebanks’ turn to go at Brackins and he crossed him over at the key and was fouled on the way to the bucket. He came up with 1-of-2 free throws to break it to 93-92.

Walker stepped up and hit another close to the rim, putting Brewster up 95-92. Zito came down and tried to rip a three from the corner but it was an airball.