Wareham's Aaron Cote makes history with third state basketball title
· Yahoo Sports
LOWELL — Wareham senior Aaron Cote didn’t want to look back on his last high school basketball game and have any regrets.
With his Vikings trailing by nine at halftime, Cote notched 20 of his game-high 31 points in the second half to power top-seeded Wareham to a thrilling 80-73 comeback win to knock off defending state champion Georgetown in the Div. 4 state final on Saturday, March 14 at the Tsongas Center in Lowell.
Visit een-wit.pl for more information.
“I wanted it so bad,” said Cote, who also had 5 rebounds and 4 assists. “I knew this was my last game. I didn’t have another chance at this. This is my last time. Knowing that I could have gotten a third ring, I didn’t want to take a chance and regret it when I’m older.”
Cote became the first SouthCoast basketball player ever to win three state championships in the sport as Wareham (21-5) won its fourth state title in school history and third in the past four years.
“It was an unreal feeling,” said Cote, the school’s all-time leading scorer. “All I ever cared about was winning.”
Over the course of his five-year career as a varsity starter at Wareham High, Cote has done whatever it took for the Vikings to win.
“He’s played every single role we asked him to play,” said Wareham coach Steve Faniel. “He’s been starting for five years for us. He started off as a role player. He did that very well. As time went on, we asked him to do a little more. We asked him to guard the other team’s best player and he came in and did that well.”
After helping Wareham win back-to-back state crowns in 2023 and 2024 his freshman and sophomore years, Cote’s junior campaign was cut short by a season-ending injury that sidelined him for 20 games.
“Last year was his time to shine and his time to lead and he lost his season to injury so for him to come back and cap his incredible career off this way, being an outstanding leader that he’s been all season, it’s just like a storybook,” Faniel said. “It’s just like a dream — a dream come true for that kid. We’re definitely happy for him. I don’t think he could have ended his career any better than what he just did.”
Cote knocked down a 3-pointer to tie the game at 45 with 3:16 left in the third quarter and put Wareham ahead 47-45 on a fastbreak layup 20 seconds later.
Georgetown answered with a basket by junior Jomar Terrero to tie the game, but a 3-pointer from junior Amare Rose put Wareham up for good at 50-47. The Vikings led by as much as 11 in the fourth quarter.
“We just talked about getting back to playing our style of basketball,” Faniel said. “I thought in the first half we got a little into the one-on-one stuff. I think they tried to do a little bit too much on their own. Once we got back to our principals, we started making a run.”
Playing in his first state final, junior Malikhi Tavares delivered in the second half, scoring 15 of his 20 points in the final 16 minutes. A key moment in the game came when he knocked down a 3-pointer and ensuing free throw for a four-point play that pulled the Vikings within 41-38 just two minutes into the third quarter.
Rose, who scored 19 points in Wareham’s 86-71 win over Bourne in the 2024 Div. 4 state final as a freshman, was a force on defense against the Royals and provided a spark on offense with 16 points. He also had 10 rebounds and 7 assists.
“Amare always plays hard,” Faniel said. “He’s a hard-working kid. With Aaron coming back, he had a different role. Last year the ball was always in his hands, but it’s a different role now. I think he changed our team halfway through last year when he started hunting triple doubles and doing all of those things, grabbing all of those rebounds, getting all those assists. He’s the most complete player on our team. He makes it easier for everybody.”
Rose said that he knew Wareham had what it took to come back to beat Georgetown (19-6).
“It came down to who wants it more,” he said. “We were down nine and we knew we had to get up on them. We had to kick it up a little bit more. They were running with us for 16 minutes, but it’s very hard to run with us for 32.”
Championship culture
In the crowd at UMass Lowell was Wareham’s entire state championship squad from 2024 with many former players sitting in the front row behind the Vikings' bench. After this year’s win, many of Wareham's players went into the stands to share the moment with the champions that came before them.
Wareham 80, Georgetown 73
Georgetown
Brendan Loewen 16 (1), Meziah Rodriguez 11, Rayner Urena Hernandez 10, Jomar Terrero 18 (1), Irvin Zapata 6 (2), Tony Tavarez Roman 3 (1), Aleksander Dimov 9 (1).
Wareham 80
Amare Rose 16 (1), Aaron Cote 31 (4), Malikhi Tavares 20 (3), Cisco Monterio, Robbie Orne 2, Tyler Cannon 6 (2).
This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: Wareham boys basketball beats Georgetown to win MIAA state title