KEENE, N.H. — Following the Mascoma High boys basketball team’s semifinal win Wednesday over St. Thomas, star senior guard Zach Thompson praised the Royals’ scout team for preparing them to face their toughest opponent yet.

No scout team, however, could have prepared Mascoma for the challenges top-seeded Gilford would present in Saturday night’s NHIAA Division III championship game.

The Golden Eagles start two players standing 6-foot-5, led by do-it-all big man Jalen Reese, and complement them with strong outside shooting and stout defense. After hanging around until late in the third quarter, the No. 3 seed Royals had no answers for Gilford’s size and came up one win short of a title, 69-43.

“They did their best, but we don’t have two 6-foot-5 guys,” Mascoma coach Silas Ayres said. “You see them on film and then you see them in layup lines, and it’s like, ‘these guys are big.’ And they’re good basketball players. That was really the difference, we didn’t keep them out of the paint.”

The Royals were on their heels from the start, with Reese owning the post from the opening tip and pacing his team to a 12-1 lead. But Mascoma settled in and used its best weapon — the 3-ball — to get back within striking distance.

Junior guard Aidan Smith hit the Royals’ first field goal of the game with a right-corner 3-pointer, freshman guard Brayden Pierce hit another moments later, and Thompson knocked down his first of the night to close within five after a quarter. The Royals got as close as three in the second, and after the Golden Eagles stretched the lead back to double digits, Mascoma pulled to a six-point deficit at the half.

Smith — whose father played on the Royals’ last state championship team in 1989 — was Mascoma’s best offensive player in the first half, with 10 of his 12 points in the opening 16 minutes. Gilford had held Thompson to just six at the break, but he began heating up in the third, starting with a transition 3-pointer and later a spin move for an old-fashioned 3-point play that cut the Golden Eagles’ lead to 35-31.

Gilford saw Mascoma in its rearview mirror, though, and hit the gas hard. The Golden Eagles scored the last seven points of the third quarter, then the first 11 of the fourth for a championship-sealing 18-0 run. Reese finished with 24 points and 12 rebounds, Logan Grant hit four 3-pointers on his way to a 16-point night, and Reese’s younger brother, Isaiah, added 14.

“They got hot and we stayed cold,” Ayres said. “That’s a formidable bunch. I couldn’t be more proud of how our guys grew throughout the season and fought and came together.”

Thompson, who will play at Castleton University next year, had 17 to lead the Royals, including 11 of Mascoma’s 18 second-half points. The Royals also will graduate Aidan Bassett and Alan Laquerre, but the other four starters — Smith, James Thomas, Tanner Moulton and Tyler-Jay Mardin — will all return.

“Zach has meant everything to getting this program back to where we are,” Ayres said. “He’s a gym rat, he’s working hard in the offseason, he’s picking younger kids up to get them in the gym. He’s a great spokesperson for how to become a college basketball player and how to be successful at the high school level and how to be a good teammate. I’m really hoping that rubs off on our younger guys coming back.”

Benjamin Rosenberg can be reached at brosenberg@vnews.com or 603-727-3302.

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