An aggressive Dover-Sherborn turned the tables on Bishop Stang’s boys basketball team, ending the Spartans’ quest for a state championship at the College of the Holy Cross on March 16 with a 71-56 Raider win.

In the Div. 3 finals, the Spartans came out ready to fight. The team put the first points on the board moments after the start of the game, but the Raiders were quick to fight back.

Throughout the first half, the Spartans held on to a sparse lead. At the end of the first quarter, the Spartans held a 2-point lead at 16-14. In the second quarter, the Stang boys gained an eight point lead before the Raiders fought back. A last-second buzzer-beater brought Dover-Sherborn up by two, 28-26.

“We made a few mental errors,” said Head Coach Colbey Santos. “They came back and actually took the lead, and then in the second half they played very defensively.”

The Raiders upped offense shined in the remaining half. The team held onto its lead for most of the third quarter. Heading into the fourth quarter with a 41-37 lead, the Raiders put 30 points on the board in the fourth quarter alone, securing a 71-56 win.

“I think a lot of it was we just kind of settled,” Santos said. “We settled for jump shots. We just didn’t have good flow today, and then the pressure in our second half, we stopped getting after them pressure-wise, and I think that was a big part of the game plan.”

The Spartans were led in scoring by Wareham’s Justin Lopes, who contributed 15 points. Damien Perry, also of Wareham, scored 10 points.

“It just didn’t go our way,” Perry said. “We went in there confident, but stuff just wasn’t working out for us. They’re a big team, and they out-rebounded us. The ball just went their way this week.”

It wasn’t Perry’s first time in the state tournament — he was on the team for the 2016 Div. 3 championship victory.

“We came here as freshmen, so we knew what it was like, but it definitely felt way different than freshman year,” Perry said. “We didn’t get it done this time.”

Dartmouth’s Declan Markey put five points on the board for the Spartans.

“We started slowing down, and started playing at their pace,” Markey said. “Once we played their pace, they just controlled the game.”

With this season over, however, the sophomore is already looking forward to next season.

“Hopefully, we have a few young kids come up and we get back here,” Markey said. “That’s the ultimate goal.”

Other scorers included Eric Camacho with 13 points, Isaiah Rodrigues with 8 points, Marcus Rapoza with 3 points, and Maxwell Winterhalter with two points.

The Spartans do finish the season as Division 3 East champions. The team defeated Dracut on March 13 at the TD Garden 55-51 to claim the title.