With eight minutes left in the NEPSAC Class A championship, the Hotchkiss boys’ basketball team clung to a one-point lead, unable to separate from a tough and resilient Phillips Andover squad.
Then, in a matter of minutes, Hotchkiss flipped the game on its head with a run that defined its season.
The Bearcats scored 17 of the next 21 points. Junior Alonzo Archbold bowled over a defender for a layup and splashed a right corner 3-pointer. Senior Jordan Ghee joined in on the fun, finishing twice in transition with strength at the rim. Then, Archbold capped the sequence with a powerful two-handed slam, rattling the rim and forcing Phillips Andover to call a timeout.
Hotchkiss players streamed from the bench onto the floor and roared, sensing the NEPSAC title was close to official. In just four minutes, the Bearcats stretched the lead to 14 points, exhibiting a burst of skill, athleticism and teamwork that made Hotchkiss flourish all winter.
How did the run happen?
“We have great spurt ability,” said fourth-year coach Joe Busacca.
Spurts — moments when the team’s sheer talent takes over a game and pulls away from an opponent — are something Busacca and his team talked about all season.
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Busacca learned the “10 before 2” drill from Amherst coach Marlon Sears, which emphasizes shooting under fatigue. The goal is to make 10 shots — often two in a row, from five different spots on the court, in under two minutes — to simulate game pressure and build mental fortitude.
“We did that drill a bunch throughout the year to show us we could be really good in spurts,” said Busacca, an assistant under Sears before taking the Hotchkiss job. “When we get stops and get out in transition, that’s when we get going. It was about throwing body blows and body blows, and once the other team is tired, we give them the knockout punch.”
Hotchkiss saved its best spurt for last. The game-defining 17-4 run allowed the Bearcats to pull away from Phillips Andover and capture the program’s second NEPSAC title with a 66-54 win at Worcester Academy. Hotchkiss (23-4) finished the season on a 12-game win streak and won 20 of its final 21 games after starting 3-3.
Just two weeks before, the Bearcats weren’t even in the projected NEPSAC Class A bracket. They had to win the Founders League during the final week of the regular season just to make the postseason as the No. 5 seed.
“No one really appreciated us,” said Ghee, who earned MVP honors after scoring a game-high 21 points in the championship game. “This team was all about grit and trust. We fought so hard to be here. It was just a mindset thing from everybody.”
Entering the season, Busacca knew he had a talented roster — but how the pieces fit together was another question. Fall practices were filled with arguments and unsettling moments about shot selection, minutes and players holding each other accountable.
By midseason, Busacca laid it straight to his group: there was no pecking order anymore. Whoever had the hot hand that game would take the shots. Everyone bought in.
“We stuck together through that journey,” said Busacca. “Our guys just believed in it. Every day we kept building our culture, and it never wavered.”
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The trust and cohesiveness paid off. Hotchkiss only lost once after Christmas, a 73-69 setback to Williston Northampton that Ghee identified as the true turning point of the season. Knowing one more loss could eliminate them from the postseason, the Bearcats rattled off nine consecutive wins to close the regular season, highlighted by a 66-65 victory at Dexter Southfield when Ghee buried a buzzer-beater from deep.
The Bearcats trailed by 14 with 8:32 remaining and by eight with under one minute to go. But with this team’s spurt ability, no lead was ever safe against them.
“After that Williston loss, we knew we had to win every game to win the title,” said Ghee. “For us, it became undeniable that we had to be here, in the championship.”
The title game displayed the balance and unselfishness Busacca had preached earlier in the winter. Ghee led the way in the first half, scoring 12 of his 21 points in the frame. Then, Archbold, an uber-athletic 6-foot-8 wing, took over in the second half. He recorded the first nine points of the 17-4 run and scored 15 of his 19 points after halftime, giving Hotchkiss an enormous boost in the most crucial moments of the season.
On that particular day, Harvard-bound senior Preston Merrick took a backseat in the scoring department, instead impacting the game with his passing and defense. The Bearcats wound up being filled with selfless, complementary pieces like Emory commit and sharpshooter Luke Schorr, savvy guards Walker Allen and Owen Zabel, and 6-foot-9 bruiser Milos Vasic.
Those players and that identity helped Hotchkiss capture the program’s second NEPSAC title since 2021, but the first since Busacca took over ahead of the 2022 season.
Minutes after Hotchkiss’ game-defining spurt, Busacca stood by the bench, tears falling down his face. He looked at his players, celebrating and posing for pictures in the center of the court, the championship trophy somewhere nearby.
“This group is so special,” said Busacca. “It’s been a long journey, with them buying into each other. We’ve been through a bunch. For me, I didn’t know if I could coach at this level. My players' belief in me helped so much. This was such a great group of guys.”
