One... 100... 50.

It was a magical numbers night for the Bromfield Trojans, who beat Hopedale, 51-46, to win their first Clark Tournament Small Schools title and give their coach, Tom Flynn, his 100th career victory in this the 50th year of the tournament.

Ayer will play Bartlett in the Large Schools Clark final at 7 tonight at the Kneller Athletic Center.

"Bromfield has never been a bastion of basketball, but after tonight we're at least on the map," said Flynn. "I didn't tell our kids that if we won this would be my 100th win. When you've been coaching for 12 years and haven't reached that century mark there aren't too many people who care about those things.

LEAN TIMES

"We've had some awfully lean times. There was a stretch three or four years ago that we went 10-65. We hadn't won a tournament game let alone a tournament before this week," said Flynn. "We haven't won a league title for 13 years and we kind of let one slip away last week when we lost to Hopedale by two (62-60). But now we have a special night that we'll always remember.

"I might even trade a couple of Central Mass. District soccer titles in for a night like this," said Matt Ruopp, the stellar soccer star, who has played pretty well on the hardwood this winter.

Ruopp scored nine points, all in the second half, handed out three assists and came up with three steals. His backcourt play was complemented by Shawn Gavin's 15-point night.

The Trojans also had it up-front when it counted as forward Mike Smith scored 13 points and hauled down 13 rebounds while Greg Maxwell, a 6-6 junior center scored 12 points and picked off nine rebounds along with two blocked shots.

That quartet played its biggest tune in the third quarter when Bromfield, breaking away from a 21-21 halftime deadlock, outscored Hopedale, 18-9, to take a 39-30 lead into the final quarter.

Maxwell, who had just two free throws in the first half, scored three hoops in the first two minutes of the third quarter on a couple of nifty feeds from John Sciple as Bromfield moved ahead, 29-25.

Ruopp and Smith came up with back-to-back steals that triggered a 10-2 run and when Gavin drove the lane for a buzzer-beater the Trojans had their nine-point lead.

"They extended their pressure and wore us down in that third period," said Hopedale Coach Don Klocek. "We didn't have much gas coming in and by the third period we were running on empty. When you miss free throws like we did tonight (8-for-20) that's a sign of being tired.

"We had to win seven straight games to win the Dual Valley Conference and that overtime win against Maynard in the semifinals took some emotion away from us," said Klocek. "Still you have to hand it to Tom and his team - they played a fine game."

A NEW WRINKLE

"After we lost to them last week playing man-to-man, I wanted to put in a new wrinkle but not until the second half so they couldn't adjust right away," said Flynn. "We went from man to a triangle-and-two pressuring their guards and packing in the middle. We got the turnovers we needed and our big guys delivered."

Hopdale's Chris Farrer, a 6-3 senior forward, who wound up with 21 points and 13 rebounds, kept the Blue Raiders in the ball game in that first quarter scoring 12 points. Matt Caron, who scored 20 against Bromfield including the winning shot a week ago, scored eight points in the first half, but was shutout over the final 16 minutes before fouling out.

TOUGH NIGHT

Hopedale center John Pardini also had a tough night, scoring just three points. Still the Blue Raiders made a come back in the final quarter pulling to within five points at 49-44 with 30 seconds left. But there was no last second magic as there was in the Maynard game.

"It was a great team effort," said Flynn. "Those guys coming in off the bench like Pat Magnus, Jon Kuell, Dave Keller and Craig Marlow all contributed tonight and all season long.

Both teams are 16-4 going into next week's districts.

"It's nice to have some impetus for the districts and it's nice to be playing basketball in late February and early March for a change," said Flynn. "It keeps me from being bored."