WORCESTER – Hopedale’s search for the open man, a season-long mission, ended just 16 seconds into the game.

Absorbing a scoop pass from crafty teammate Brian Bacon, Paul Kampersal shot upward and deposited the ball through the net with ease for the game’s opening points.

In this case, what may be known soon as “Kamping out” underneath the opponent’s basket, a mobile and active Kampersal helped Hopedale dismantle Pioneer Valley Regional in the Division 3 state semifinal yesterday at the Worcester Centrum, 60-44.

“The thing that I count on,” began triumphant Hopedale coach Tony Cordani with a tone of satisfaction in his voice, “is that everybody comes to play every night. We have 12 guys on our roster and they all contribute. Every guy does something for our team. There are no variables. The effort has been there night-in and night-out.”

One more night and Hopedale will finish a season that started at 2-3 as the Division 3 state champions.

For the first time in school history, Hopedale – a state semi-finalist during the 1984-85 and 1990-91 seasons – has completed the arduous and often dream-like journey to the state final. The Blue Raiders, improving to 22-3 with the victory over Pioneer Valley as their winning streak fattens to 20 games, will face 21-2 Newburyport Saturday (12:30 p.m.) at the Centrum.

Shaking his defender, the 6-3 Kampersal found his way to unclaimed rebounds, such as the tip-in of Jon Tosches’ bid for a second 3-pointer, and to open space near the foul line for jump shots.

Receiving three passes inside from point guard Kevin Webber, Kampersal quickly exploited his two-inch size advantage over Panther defender Aaron Buczke with bank-shots off the backboard glass and turnaround jumpers.

“I think they were more focused on stopping Bacon at that point,” said Kampersal, who scored 14 of his game-high 21 points in the first half. “They were just leaving me open with a smaller guy on me and I took advantage of that.”

Added Bacon, who did not attempt many shots in the first half, ”Paul had a huge advantage on the guy covering him and we were just trying to get the ball to him. He can make those bunnies.”

“Teams have a tough time covering us. When teams double me, that leaves Paul or Thiff (Dan Thiffault) open. When they cover Paul, that leaves me or Thiff open. When they doubled-down on me in the first half, we took advantage of that.”

“On our team, we don’t care who scores the points,” said Bacon, the Dual Valley Conference Player of the Year. “If I can take my man I will. If not, I’ll dish off.”

Kampersal’s foul-line jumper put the Blue Raiders ahead, 25-7 with 2:23 remaining in the half. Installing a full-court pressing defense, the Panthers, who scored just four points in the opening 13 minutes, scored six points in a 44-second span to help cut the one-time 19-point lead to 10 at the half.

“We’re really a young team that is not too physical,” Pioneer Valley coach Perry Messer said. “We haven’t been a pressing or trapping team. We have young kids that need to get physically strong, but we knew that we needed more pressure on the ball.”

The Blue Raiders, somewhat discouraged that the game was suddenly close, needed to regroup at half-time.

“We went into halftime and we knew that they had the momentum,” said Tosches. “Our coach, though, had a good point. He said that we were ahead 10 points and it didn’t matter how we got that lead. We understood what he meant and we played with a little more confidence after that.”

With athletic 6-foot-4 center Kevin Harrington harassing Kampersal after the break, Bacon became one of the focal points for always-adaptable Hopedale. Displaying quickness equal to that of the Panthers, Bacon’s elusiveness helped the Blue Raiders push the lead back to 18.

Gathering the strength for one final run, Pioneer Valley (16-9) scored seven consecutive points to shave the lead to eight, 44-36 with 6:25 remaining. The Panthers, behind five steals and two blocked shots from Harrington, were under a double-digit deficit for the first time since the 9:15 mark of the first half.

They pounded everyone (on the boards),” Bacon said. “We had to run a little more than we usually do.”

As the game became more physical, Bacon – with Buczke draped all over him – drilled a short-range jumper and added an assist on a Kampersal layup with 3:11 remaining to again inflate the lead to a dozen.

“I think our team has become strong enough that no matter what happens, we play our game and pound it inside,” said Thiffault. ‘One of our secrets to winning is to stay cool throughout the game.”

“The game transformed into free-shooting exhibition for Hopedale, which did not attempt a free-throw in the first half. All of the Blue Raiders’ 18 attempts took place in the final 2:13 of the game.

“We try to play the game hard until the buzzer sounds,” said Messer, whose scrappy players often extended hands to fouled or shaken Hopedale players. “We weren’t playing dirty, but putting them on the line at then end of the game is all that we could do.”

As the celebration with their blue-painted, screaming fans subsided, the Raiders made their way on the carpeted cement floor out of the arena and toward their locker room.

The poised players – quietly confident in themselves – know they have to come play one more game.

HOPEDALE (60) Jon Tosches 2-3-9; Jason Chan 0-0-0; Brian Bacon 5-3-13; Wes Stafford 1-0-2; Evren Gunduz 0-0-0; Dan Thiffault 5-1-11; Kevin Webber 0-4-4; Alex Berger 0-0-0- Paul Kampersal 10-1-21; TOTALS: 23-13-60

PIONEER VALLEY ( 44) Mike Gexler 0-0-0; Rob Knapp 4-1-9; Aaron Holloway 0-0-0; Aaron Wing 4-0-8; Kevin Harrington 7-2-17; Matt Szulborski 0-0-0; Kyle Snow 0-0-0; Aaron Buczek 1-3-4; Matt Hathaway 0-0-0; Josh Hastings 1-2-5 TOTALS: 17-8-44

Halftime: Hopedale, 25-15; 3-Pointers: Tosches (2), Harrington, Hastings.

WORCESTER – It seemed as though Ayer had an endless supply of fresh players, equipped with long arms and five fouls in reserve.

“They are quick and physical – probably the most physical team that we’ve played – especially when they go to the full-court press,” said Hopedale head coach Tony Cordani one of the few people that left WPI’s floor without a bruise.

“They get in there and they like to mix it up. They take a lot of chances but it doesn’t hurt a deep team like that to pick up a foul. Foul trouble definitely played a big role in this game. It was definitely a concern.”

With Hopedale’s top-scorer and rebounder Brian Bacon used sporadically before fouling out with 2:36 left in the CMass. Division 3 semifinal game with Ayer, the poised “team-first” Blue Raiders some how managed to escape with another close victory, 48-40.

The stocky Panthers, built thick like football players, rotated 10 players to combat Hopedale and pound away on the boards. The Blue Raiders entered the penalty situation with over five minutes remaining in each half, as eight Ayer players finished the game with two or more fouls.

“The only thing that we could do in that situation is be smart,’ said Cordani of the bumping battlefield of bodies that began early in the night, “but we still had to be aggressive and not pick up cheap fouls.”

Hopedale, the second-seeded team with a 19-3 record, will now face top-seed Sutton (19-2) for the fourth time this season in the CMass. Division 3 final Saturday at WPI (1:45 P.M.).The Sammies demolished Quaboag, 79-57, in last night’s second semifinal game.

“Sutton knows a lot about us and we know a lot about them,” commented Cordani. “In the last two games, we’ve had competitive games with them.”

After yielding a driving layup to start the game, the Blue Raiders scored 12 consecutive points, led by two Jon Tosches 3-pointers, a pair of Paul Kampersal layups and a Bacon tip-in.

Seeing that his team’s defense was not stopping Hopedale, Ayer head coach Don Kelley called a timeout and instructed his team to press the length of the floor. The sixth-seeded Panthers (16-6), behind a 7-0 run, pulled within a possession of the Blue Raiders and remained there until finally regaining the lead in the final 51 seconds of the half.

“You can’t expect to come in and blow these teams out,” stressed Cordani, whose team trailed at halftime, 21-20. “The same thing happened to us against Nipmuc. I told the kids that it’s a long game and that we should try to control what we can control.”

Ayer’s student body celebrated in the early stages of the second half with signs and a booming horn – ignoring a staunch MIAA rule printed on roster cards – when Tony Gardner’s three-pointer increased the Panther’s lead to 27-24.

As they have done throughout the season, the composed Blue Raiders weathered the storm. Kampersal, with rebounds, steals and putbacks, and Tosches gave Hopedale a 34-31 lead.

“Our plan was to pound it inside, but when the defense packs it in I get my open looks,” said Tosches, who finished with 17 points.

However, as Tosches’ third three-pointer gracefully dropped through the strings of the net, Bacon was whistled for his fourth foul. A minute later, Tosches picked up his fourth and Hopedale was in danger of losing two starters to fifth and game-ending fouls.

Holding a slight 38-37 lead, Kampersal shot over 6-foot-5 Pat Pau and 30 seconds later connected on two free throws to give the Blue Raiders a five-point cushion.

“It was definitely like play-ground basketball out there,” said the 6-foot-3 Kampersal, who scored a game-high 18 points. “This was one of the most physical games that I’ve played in.”

“Physically they had some big boys who did a good job boxing out and using their hands without anybody seeing them use their hands. They gave a little and we gave a little, too,” he added.

Kampersal had to battle the combination of 6-foot-1, 230 pound Stan Pau – identifiable by his knee-high white socks – as well as the taller, muscular Pat Pau who opted for knee-high black socks.

When Pat Pau assaulted the glass backboard with a thunderous dunk, Ayer fans changed “nasty, nasty” as the Panthers closed within a point.

“All of that is just for show,” Kampersal said. “So what if it got the crowd excited? It’s still only two points.”

“That’s the thing that our team does well. We forget about what just happened and we keep playing.”

Dan Thiffault’s inside basket put Hopedale ahead, 44-38 with 1:50 remaining and the Blue Raiders defense again held another opponent under 50 points.

“We’re just confident,” Tosches said. “We think that we’re in control of our destiny because we don’t have to rely on outside shooting, which can be streaky.

HOPEDALE 48 Jon Tosches 4-6-17; Jason Chan 0-0-0; Brian Bacon 1-1-3; Wes Stafford 0-9-0-; Dan Thiffault 2-2-6; Kevin Webber 0-4-4; Paul Kampersal 6-6-18 TOTALS: 13-19-48

AYER 40 Anton Dailey 2-0-4; Jeff Parker 4-1-9; Adam McClure 0-0-0; Kirk Camblin 0-0-0; Jon Hawthorne 0-0-0; Tony Gardner 2-1-6; Matt Callahan 3-0-7; Stan Pau 0-0-0; Mario Collins 3-2-8; Pat Pau 3-0-6; TOTALS 17-4-40

Halftime: Ayer 21-20; 3-pointers: Tosches (3), Gardner, Callahan

WORCESTER – For the second game in a row, the Hopedale boys basketball team went into the locker room at halftime down by six points. And for the second game in a row, the Blue Raiders wouldn’t let that get in their way.

In the Clark Tournament small schools championship game Saturday, Hopedale turned it up in the second half, to cruise to an easy 46-34 win over Sutton.

It was only the fourth time a Blue Raider team has emerged as champions in the Clark, which started in 1939. The team last won in 1991.

Head coach Tony Cordani’s pre-game message was simple: “I told my guys that we needed to do the same thing we did against Tahanto (in the semifinal). Get the ball inside, play tough defense, and break the full-court pressure.”

It took Hopedale 13 minutes to score its 11th point of the first half, and that was all they scored, going to the break down 17-11.

“A first half score like that is unheard of in a championship game,” said Hopedale co-captain Kevin Webber. “For the entire first half it just seemed like our offense wasn’t working.”

“Sutton played some tenacious first-half defense,” said Cordani. “They pushed us outside, taking away our inside game pretty effectively.”

Against Tahanto on Thursday night, Hopedale opened the second half with a solid run to get back into the game. Saturday, the second half seemed like one big run. With 9:12 left in the game, the Blue raiders took a 21-19 lead. The lead was never relinquished, as Hopedale’s defense became impenetrable.

After staking a three-point lead with 6:21 left, Webber took the ball to the hoop through the entire Sutton team, and confidently layed the ball in with the foul. Hopedale’s lead increased to six, and a championship was within reach.

Four minutes later, Hopedale took its biggest lead of the game, 37-25 after Webber nailed two free throws. Fans on the Hopedale side stared up a chant “It’s all over, it’s all over,” and all of the blue raiders on the bench were standing twirling towels or warm-up jerseys around their heads.

Sutton seemed deflated – players hanging their heads, failing to execute simple passes, missing free throws. Hopedale played as their lives depended on it and their hustle and hard work was rewarded with 42.7 seconds left.

Senior point guard Jon Tosches took the ball out of bounds after a Sutton 3-pointer which brought the score to 41-32. Tosches dribbled through full-court press traffic, and eluded Sutton defenders long enough to bring the shot clock to nine seconds. After frustrating his opponents for long enough, Tosches was fouled, and promptly swooshed both free throws.

When the final 30 seconds of the game were over, and Hopedale could finally celebrate for real, the celebrations weren’t fancy and gloating. Instead, the entire team, coaches and all, met at half court and put their hands together. After the mini-celebration was over, and the championship plaques were handed out, the Blue Raiders clapped for their opponent.

Webber finished with a team-high 13 points, with 11 of those coming in the second half. “This kid had a great tournament,” said Cordani. “He’s our coach on the floor, and he handles pressure very well.”

With a 17-3 regular season, and a Clark University Tournament Championship, the Hopedale boy’s basketball team will be able to finally get a little rest. Because the Blue Raiders are seeded No. 2 in the Central Mass Division 3 tournament, they will receive a first round bye and will play either Nipmuc or Keefe Tech on March 2.

BLACKSTONE – He’s the closest thing that Hopedale has to a go-to scorer, yet Brian Bacon resists to identify with that title.

“When you have one guy that scores, it just doesn’t work,” Bacon explained, after the Blue Raiders finished off Blackstone-Millville Regional, 61-39 to capture a share of the Dual-Valley Conference title with the team the rest of the league roots against, Sutton.

“We have a lot of keys to this team, and when we’re all healthy and all in the game, we come together nicely. We put aside selfish play and it seems to work out better that way.”

In a game in which each team needed to win for different reasons, the experienced Blue Raiders followed the blueprint team-first concept to win their 13th consecutive game.

All five starters approached scoring in double-digits, with Bacon’s deceptively quick post moves accounting for most of his 15 points. Paul Kampersal, a BMR-to-Hopedale transfer who was saddled with early foul trouble, banged the boards for eight of his 12 points in the second half. Dan Thiffault cut-and-slashed his way through the lane for another dozen, while guards Kevin Webber and long-range threat Jon Tosches added nine and seven more points respectively.

“We’re always looking to make the extra pass and looking for the offense to create things,” affirmed Hopedale head coach Tony Cordani, whose team improved to 15-3 overall and ended at 13-1 in the league. “We’re not looking for just one guy to be the scorer. We have unselfish guys who will look for the open man.

“When you look at Brain Bacon, he’s a good athlete who can slash to the hoop when the opportunity arises. We take the opportunities when they come, but there have been games where he has not scored a lot of points but had five or six nice assists. He does a nice job of not forcing things,” Cordani said.

Hopedale, needing a win to keep pace with Sutton atop the DVC standings, faced a BMR team that needed a win to continue its season. Victories over Whitinsville Christian and Douglas improved the Charges to 8-8, with a postseason tournament berth hinging on the outcome of the Blue Raiders game.

‘We put ourselves in a good position to get here,” acknowledged BMR head coach Keith Ducharme. “Our win over Whitinsville Christian put confidence in us, something to play for. We had a chance to get into the tourney and knock Hopedale out of the league’s top spot.”

Off to a sluggish start, with four unsuccessful possessions to begin the game, Hopedale regained the defensive form that it takes pride in. The Blue Raiders held the Chargers scoreless for almost six minutes while expanding a two-point lead into a commanding 24-8 advantage.

Most of the 14 straight Hopedale points seem to come underneath the basket, with Bacon, Thiffault and Webber combining on the run. Wes Stafford provided an immediate impact off of the bench with a no-holds-barred defense that found him on the hardwood floor on several occasions.

“We’re definitely a defensive team,” Cordani said. “The guys emphasize defense and will do whatever it takes. Wes has assumed a lesser role offensively to develop into a great perimeter defender. There are a lot of guys on this team that have put in a lot of time to improve themselves.

One of those players is Kampersal, who scored four of the first six Hopedale points but spent the majority of this evening in the first half sitting near his coach.

“We always seem to get steady performances from Brian and Dan, but Paul has really developed into a rebounder and inside scorer,” Cordani stated.

Bacon, the focus of opponent’s defense, added, “We had eight or nine seniors and our head coach from last year leave. We thought his was going to be a rebuilding year. I think Paul has really stepped up and taken the pressure off of Thiff and myself. When I get double-teamed now, it’s easy for me to dish it to him. He’s really come through for us.”

Beginning the season at 2-3, Thiffault said, “I don’t think that a lot of people on the outside could see it, but in practice the team could see it. A lot people see us scoring 45 points and think that we are a pushover team. We think that our defense works hard, and that is what pulls us through games.”

One of those games, a rematch with a Sutton team that dominated the first game, elevated Hopedale as a serious league contender. The Blue Raiders stunned a Sammies team that won by over 20 in their first meeting, 50-40.

“I think that the team was confident before that, but beating Sutton really seemed to unify us. That brought us together,” Thiffault said.

“Before that we were a little hesitant, but after that game we played hard and knew that no one could take it (the shot at the league title) away.”

And that included a hopeful Chargers team. A baseline drive by Bacon gave a confident Hopedale team a 28-13 halftime lead.

“If you try to stop one of them it opens it up for someone else. Bacon was killing us in the first half with 10 points, getting the ball in the block where he just doesn’t miss,” Ducharme noted. “I told the kids at the half that as bad as it was, we were only down by 15. I wanted to turn the tempo up to our speed. I didn’t want them to set up a halfcourt offense.

BMR pulled within 10 points in the opening minutes of the second half, but could not get closer as two three-pointers from Tosches and another by Webber reinforced the scoring of Bacon, Thiffault and Kampersal inside.

“They are a very good team and they deserve to be league champs,” Ducharme proclaimed after his team ended its season at 8-9 (5-9 in the DVC). “To go with only one loss in this league is something, but I’ll say this about my kids – they kept playing hard and never gave up. I obviously thought that team was better, but we kept playing when we could have easily given up and just shot three pointers.”

Brian Bacon fired in 14 points to lift visiting Hopedale past Whitinsville-Christian in Dual Valley Conference action.

Paul Kampersal scored 13 points for the Raiders (11-3, 8-1). Jon Tosches added 10 points and Dan Thiffault contributed with eight.

Hopedale led 30-20 at the break and held a double-digit lead most of the second half.

The first time Hopedale and Sutton met for a Dual-Valley Conference showdown, Sutton cruised by 30 points, pasting the Blue Raiders 63-33.

But Hopedale turned the tables at home last night, jumping out to an early lead and eventually sealing things at the foul line late for a 50-44 triumph.

Hopedale officially clinched a tournament berth with the win, as the Blue Raiders moved to 9-3 overall. More importantly, they grabbed a share of first place in the conference moving into a tie with Sutton at 7-1.

“The first time around, we had a lot of trouble with their press,” explained Hopedale coach Tony Cordani. “It came down to the game-plan more than anything. We just didn’t execute and they blew us out early because we had a ton of turnovers.”

“This time,” Cordani continued, “we stayed in the game and ran a halfcourt offense. We were able to get the ball inside and we didn’t let their press affect us too much. A lot of people will see this as an upset, because they’d been blowing a lot of teams out and we’d just been getting by – but this is a game we definitely felt we could win”.

Brian Bacon, who was absent in the first meeting, sparked Hopedale with his team high 17 points. He was a force inside. Paul Kampersal also had a big game in the paint with his 11 points.

“We were down one starter the first time; Bacon couldn’t play because of an ankle sprain,” added Cordani. “He had a big game for us. Plus, I think we’ve improved a little bit since them. Or guard play has really improved and just overall we’ve improved.”

HOPEDALE – Brian Bacon and the Hopedale Blue Raiders sent the crowd at the Draper Gym home on a positive note, downing guest Nipmuc last night, 56-45.

Bacon was 70-percent from the free throw line, and finished with 25 points to lead Hopedale, which improves to 7-3 overall this winter. Paul Kampersal followed Bacon, finding the net on 10 field goals, good for 22 points.

Nipmuc, which led by two at halftime, got 25 points from Justin Ghelli, who bombed away from beyond the three-point line and hit six from long range, keeping the Warriors in the game late in the second half.

Carl Sattelmair followed with nine points for the Warriors, who drop to a 6-3 record.

Both teams will be back in action on Tuesday night, with Hopedale at home against Blackstone-Millville, and Nipmuc hosting first place Sutton. Both games are slated for 7:00 PM tip-off.

HOPEDALE – Hopedale slowed down Whitinsville Christian, 46-43.

The low-scoring affair was just what the doctor ordered for Hopedale. The score of this one was 19-17 at halftime and Blue Raider coach Tony Cordani was happy with what he saw. Hopedale continued to play solid defense on the high-scoring Crusaders and closed out the win.

“I felt coming in that a low-scoring game would be in our favor. They have some really good kids who can score a ton of points and we didn’t want to get hooked up in a shootout,” said Cordani.

Whitinsville’s leading scorer Jarred Linnell still managed a game-high 17 points and Brain Barnatt added nine points. For Hopedale, Jon Tosches was high man with 10 points.