Malden Catholic’s quest for a three-peat is alive.

Trailing by two with lower than 10 seconds to go, Somerset Berkley’s three-point try from the wing rimmed out and No. 1 Malden Catholic held on for a 50-48 win over the No. 4 Raiders within the Div. 2 State Semifinals on Monday evening at UMass Boston.

Ben Howard led the Lancers with 16 factors and eight rebounds.

Malden Catholic will look to win its third consecutive Div. 2 title this weekend on the Tsongas Center in Lowell. The Lancers will play the winner of Bedford and Sharon set for Tuesday evening.

“Some of these kids have never lost a playoff game. That matters a bit when things get tight,” Malden Catholic coach John Walsh mentioned. “Credit to (Somerset Berkley) for battling and making it tough on us. Our kids have that winning experience.”

For the whole thing of the state event thus far, the Lancers (15-9) had defeated every of their first three opponents by 17 factors or extra. The Lancers appeared poised to do this as soon as once more when a Drexier Pierre layup gave them a 34-22 lead halfway via the third quarter.

Somerset obtained inside putting distance courtesy of 5 factors from Mason Medeiros, however Messiah Johnson and Howard mixed for eight factors to push the Lancer lead again to 42-31 heading into the fourth. Malden Catholic remained forward by 11, 44-33, with 5 minutes left however Brendan McDonald and Medeiros mixed for a 7-0 to trim the deficit to 46-40 with two minutes left.

Moments later, with their full court docket stress on, the Raiders transformed a pair of steals and scores to chop the result in 46-44. Down by 5 with 15 seconds remaining, MacDonald buried a triple to get his crew inside a pair.

“Earlier in my career I would have worried about not playing in close games as of late going down the stretch,” mentioned Walsh, who has received 5 state championships. “But the truth is that it really does not matter there. You have to execute and for a stretch we did not. Truthfully, we’re very fortunate.”

The Lancers then missed two on the charity stripe, giving Somerset an opportunity at a last-second win. The Raiders’ three-point try went lengthy, nonetheless, sending the Lancers again to the title recreation.