St. Thomas Aquinas’s Carson Couperthwait, right, shoots over Mascoma Valley defender Aidan Smith during the first half of their Division III state semifinal at Bow High School Tuesday. The Saints rolled to a 57-38 victory and will play in Saturday night’s final at Keene State College.
St. Thomas Aquinas’s Finley De Tolla, left, Mascoma Valley’s Brayden Pierce, center, and STA’s Anthony Settineri, partially hidden, dive for a loose ball during the first half of their Division III state semifinal at Bow High School Tuesday.
St. Thomas Aquinas’s Will Mollica, left, looks for a shot under pressure from Mascoma Valley defenders Aidan Smith, center, and James Thomas, right, during the first half of their Division III semifinal at Bow Tuesday.
St. Thomas Aquinas's Finley De Tolla, right, collects a rebound in front of Mascoma Valley's Aidan Smith, during the first half of their Division III state semifinal at Bow High School Tuesday.
St. Thomas Aquinas’s Carson Couperthwait, right, shoots over Mascoma Valley defender Aidan Smith during the first half of their Division III state semifinal at Bow High School Tuesday. The Saints rolled to a 57-38 victory and will play in Saturday night’s final at Keene State College.
St. Thomas Aquinas’s Carson Couperthwait, right, shoots over Mascoma Valley defender Aidan Smith during the first half of their Division III state semifinal at Bow High School Tuesday. The Saints rolled to a 57-38 victory and will play in Saturday night’s final at Keene State College.
St. Thomas Aquinas’s Carson Couperthwait, right, shoots over Mascoma Valley defender Aidan Smith during the first half of their Division III state semifinal at Bow High School Tuesday. The Saints rolled to a 57-38 victory and will play in Saturday night’s final at Keene State College.
St. Thomas Aquinas’s Finley De Tolla, left, Mascoma Valley’s Brayden Pierce, center, and STA’s Anthony Settineri, partially hidden, dive for a loose ball during the first half of their Division III state semifinal at Bow High School Tuesday.
St. Thomas Aquinas’s Will Mollica, left, looks for a shot under pressure from Mascoma Valley defenders Aidan Smith, center, and James Thomas, right, during the first half of their Division III semifinal at Bow Tuesday.
St. Thomas Aquinas's Finley De Tolla, right, collects a rebound in front of Mascoma Valley's Aidan Smith, during the first half of their Division III state semifinal at Bow High School Tuesday.
BOW — After suffering what he deemed an “embarrassing” 62-49 loss to Mascoma Valley in last year’s Division III semifinals, St. Thomas Aquinas boys basketball coach Dave Morissette wanted to make sure there wouldn’t be a repeat performance in Tuesday night’s semifinal rematch.
The second-seeded Saints made sure they made their coach proud after seizing full control with a 16-5 second quarter on their way to a comfortable 57-38 victory over No. 3 Mascoma at Bow High School.
“I’m not going to lie. Last year in the semifinals, they embarrassed us,” Morissette said. “The defense we worked on for the past two months until now was to get us ready for this game, so it was not hard to game plan. We didn’t do anything different. We just went over what we did all year and we kind of just did what we do.”
St. Thomas (18-1) will play No. 1 Conant, which beat No. 4 Kearsarge 35-30 in Tuesday’s late semifinal, for the Division III championship on Saturday (8 p.m.) at Keene State College.
The program’s only championship came when it won back-to-back Class M titles in 1991 and 1992.
Senior captain Will Mollica netted 10 points, while classmate James Allen scored 15 points and Cole McClure added 11.
“We’ve been preparing for this game all year. We don’t look ahead of anybody, but this is the game we’ve practiced for and this is the game we worked hard for,” Mollica said. “These guys embarrassed us last year and we weren’t going to get embarrassed again.”
Mascoma (17-2) led 17-14 after one quarter, but St. Thomas opened the second on a 12-0 run that was highlighted by a 3-pointer by McClure.
The Saints extended their 30-22 halftime lead by outscoring Mascoma 14-7 in the third quarter, as junior Anthony Settineri scored eight points in the frame to give St. Thomas a 44-29 cushion heading to the fourth.
“We were kind of feeling it out in the first quarter and in the second quarter we came out and said, ‘This is us,’” Mollica said. “They came right at us and we came right back.
