Watertown shoots to state final

Watertown's Anthony Coppola gets a leaping chest bump from teammate Benyam Kerman (left) after Coppola hit a big second half basket, which left Medfield's Chris Bonadies in no mood to celebrate.
(Globe Staff Photo by Jim Davis)

SPORTS

The Watertown High boys' basketball team is headed to the DCU Center in Worcester Saturday afternoon (12:45 p.m.) for a shot at the program's first-ever state title.

The runnin' Red Raiders put it in overdrive in the second half of Tuesday night's Division 3 state semifinal against Medfield, pulling away for a 65-51 win at the TD BankNorth Garden.

On a night in which high-scoring senior guard Anthony Coppola was limited to 14 points, Steve Keuchkarian netted a team-high 16 mand sophomore twins Craig and Kyle Stockmal, the sons of former Watertown coach Craig Stockmal, had 15 apiece.

"I just think our guys are just as tough as nails," Watertown coach Steve Harrington told Globe correspondent Steve Crowe. "We used our speed to really make this a 94-foot game, jam all of their screens and just pressure [Medfield] as much as possible."

Watertown (21-3) will play the winner of tonight's Bartlett-Sabis semifinal on Saturday.

Medfield, which advanced to the state semifinals for the first time in 24 years, finishes a superb season at 21-4, including the Big Blue's third straight Tri-Valley League title. Senior Matt Connelly led the way with 16 points and junior Joey Richman had 14. Jeff Altimar, the boys' all-time leading scorer, had 11.

"Their defensive intensity was definitely the difference," Medfield coach Herb Grace told the Globe.

-- Craig Larson