LOWELL, Mass. — In the bowels of the Tsongas Center, after they had clinched the Division 5 championship in their final game together, Pioneer Valley star Brayden Thayer saw his dad, head coach Scott Thayer, doing an interview. He approached him from behind, wrapped his arms around him for a hug.
“I love you, dad,” Brayden said.
This is a moment he dreamed of. Growing up, Brayden was always around his dad as he coached, and envisioned playing in the big games with him one day. On Saturday, the dream was fulfilled. Thayer scored a game-high 26 points, leading top-seeded Pioneer Valley to a dominant 49-28 victory over No. 2 Hopedale for the Div. 5 crown.
“It’s special, especially to do it with my dad," Brayden said. "He’s my idol, I look up to him so much. I’m just glad I got to win it with him, the last ever time he’ll be coaching me.”
The Panthers completed a perfect 26-0 season in their typically dominant fashion. Only two of wins were decided by single digits. The Panthers finished the season by outscoring their opponents by a whopping 30.7 points per game.
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In their five tournament wins, they relied on their trademark defense to claim a championship. They held their opponents to 30.4 points per game and fewer than 30 points in four of their five wins.
“Our defense and our rebounding has been the key to our success all year long,” Scott Thayer said. “Everybody kept asking me, ‘What are you going to do when you get in a close game?’ Well, I know they’ve played in close games, but I guess we’ll never know, right?
“We just believe in what we do, and we make it hard for other teams to score the ball.”
Pioneer faced brief adversity Saturday, trailing by one following the first quarter. But after the Panthers got their feet wet on the big stage, they kicked it into high gear. They erupted for a 15-0 run in the second quarter, held Hopedale to just two points in the period and never looked back.
“I thought the first quarter, we were anxious on offense, a little tight,” Scott Thayer said. “Their zone is a little tricky. … I think we just had to get comfortable a little bit.”
All along, Brayden Thayer had it rolling. He hit his first 3-pointer of the game early in the first, and the offense flowed through him. He scored 14 of Pioneer’s first 16 points, had 16 at halftime, and by the end of the third quarter, his 26 points were outpacing Hopedale’s 20. He finished with six 3-pointers.
“Once he hit that first one, I thought, he’s going to have a big night,” Scott Thayer said. “We kind of needed that. … To know this is the last game I’ll ever coach him, it couldn’t be any better, but it is bittersweet.”
Pioneer led by as many as 24 in the second half as senior Alex McClelland helped open the lead with three treys. Senior guard Kurt Redeker stymied Hopedale star Patrick Madden, who only scored 13 points with several coming when the game was out of reach.
Brayden Thayer started soaking in the moment with a minute remaining, when he raised his arms in front of a roaring Pioneer crowd. He dribbled out the clock, throwing the ball in the air as the horn sounded.
Scott Thayer said he’ll always cherish the relationships he built with this group over the last 5-6 years.
“The ups and downs, knocking on the door, practicing, the team dinners, the bus rides, it’s all been fantastic,” he said. “They’re young and you blink, and all of a sudden, here we are.
“This will never go away. It’ll always be something that connects us, whether it’s a text on a holiday or they come back to a school function, or whatever it may be, I’ll always be connected to them. It’ll be, ‘Hey coach, remember when we did this?’”
