AMHERST -- It's not the ideal basketball warm-up song, but if you searched the iPods belonging to the members of the St. Bernard's boys' basketball team chances are you'd find Coldplay's "Don't Panic" on a few.

 

The Bernardians certainly didn't show any signs of nerves Wednesday evening, even when early foul trouble and a hot-shooting opponent threatened to put the brakes on the St. Bernard's Express.

 

No, these Bernardians simply weathered the storm and when the dust cleared, the Bernardians stood with a ticket to the Division 2 state finals on the heels of a 65-50 triumph over Western Mass. champion Holyoke Catholic.

 

The Gaels built an eight-point advantage just seconds into the second half, but the Bernardians outscored their opponents 38-15 over the final 15 minutes to emerge with a lopsided victory.

 

"The first half was kind of rough for us," said St. Bernard's coach Mark Pierce, explaining how senior Jamaal Gray injured himself in practice Tuesday and two quick fouls for both R.C. Grady and B.J. Morin shortened his rotation (forcing players like junior Taylor Lemay to log quality first-half minutes).

 

"We've been through some tough games this year with the schedule we play. The kids never panicked at half time."

 

In fact, they never panicked.

 

Grady watched the final 11:55 of the first half from bench and the coaching staff nearly had to chain him down as Holyoke Catholic senior Ray Witkos (game-high 23 points) propelled his team to a 33-27 halftime advantage.

 

But Grady knew the team would turn it around.

 

"It was tough watching us struggle, but I felt like if we could at least keep it close, then I could come out and try to help my teammates as much as I could," said Grady. "Once we turned the momentum around, it snowballed."

 

Grady scored 12 of his 14 points after the break, while sophomore Timmy Henault scored 10 of his 14 in the same span.

 

Junior James Maloughney managed to hold the fort in the first half, scoring 10 points and corralling 12 boards in the first 16 minutes and finishing with a team-high 19 points and 17 rebounds.

 

"When (R.C.) is out of the game, I'm picking it up," said Maloughney. "When I'm out, he's going to pick it up. That's the kind of confidence we have in the guys on this team."

 

St. Bernard's Dawg Pound endured the chants of "overrated" at halftime, but even they didn't seem to panic. A 13-0 spurt early in the second half put the Bernardians out front, 48-40, as chants of "awfully quiet" cascaded down from the St. Bernard's faithful.

 

The Bernardians had trailed at times against Holy Name and St. John's this season. They lost to both squads, but showed resiliency by battling back to make both games close.

 

Wednesday, St. Bernard's showed it can both battle back and win those games, even on the biggest stage of the year.

 

"We've been down plenty of times and always came back, so everyone was calm," said Grady. "We knew we could do it, we just had to believe."

 

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I love these little random links between Coldplay and basketball :lol: (I love both :heart:)

Haha! Not exactly an adrenaline rushing song, but still cool. :D

LOL....very neat! :D