Jack Schwab’s run of three straight Monadnock Ledger-Transcript Three-Point Shootout victories was snapped by his own coach, as first-year Wilton-Lyndeborough head man Malin Segal bested his senior sharpshooter and a handful of other hopefuls with some lights-out shooting.
For the first time, we moved the shootout from a summer event to the beginning of basketball season, indoors at WLC instead of outside at Goss Park, where low-hanging tree limbs bedeviled high-arcing shots. With Mascenic and ConVal scrimmaging Belmont and Bow, respectively, on Saturday, the fourth annual shootout was down to Warriors Schwab, Zach Taylor and coach Segal along with Conant seniors Anthony Gauthier and Hunter Guevera, and myself.
We went around the arc, shooting five shots apiece from five spots — the baselines, wings, and top of the key — in the same format as the NBA All-Star weekend three-point contest.
The format was as close as I’d come to being a real basketball player on that day. After narrowly surviving the first round and eliminating WLC big man Taylor – poised to make a leap in his sophomore season this winter – I shot so poorly in the second round that I refused to even hear the low, low number I’d put up, and sulked to the sideline.
Gauthier, who’ll likely be in the running for First-Team All-State this winter, was next to go, as Guevera, Schwab, and Segal put up another round of 80-percent-or-better shooting.
Segal, a 2018 graduate of Sarah Lawrence College who set the school records for career steals and three-pointers made, put on a show in the fourth round, sinking 21 of 25 attempts. That was enough to eliminate Guevera, whose sharpshooting prowess looks promising for the Orioles this winter in an expanded role.
It was down to three-time champion Schwab and his new coach. Segal set the bar at 18, and Schwab matched it on his final shot to force a lightning round shootout of five shots apiece. Segal left the door open, hitting three of five, but Schwab’s final attempt went in and out, and for the first time in four years, a new champion was crowned. Segal was happy to see how well his senior leader shot during the contest and said he hopes Schwab shoots that well during WLC’s regular season, which starts Friday at home against Hinsdale at 7 p.m.
Segal passed on the prizes, donated by Peterborough Pizza Barn, Advance Auto Parts of Jaffrey, and Mr. Mike’s of Jaffrey, to the runners-up.