CUMBERLAND – Thursday night’s game was bittersweet for Bishop Walsh.

Sure, the Spartans blew the Scotland Campus (92-49) and put on their usual show with transitional dunks and acrobatic finishes. The display was also the last of the season.

In a year full of cancellations, uncertainties and without a Catholic invitation tournament in Alhambra, Bishop Walsh finished the race with a good result.

“It was the last game for our seniors so it was a little emotional,” said Spartan’s head coach Dan Prete. “I thought they handled the emotions pretty well, there isn’t a crowd.

“This year has been both a blessing and a curse. I think they learned a lot about adversity so it will help them for the rest of their lives. “

With three senior stints in Division 1 in the top five – Jalen Miller (Rutgers), Nestor Dyachok (New Mexico) and Ismail Habib (Austin Peay) – and two more fourth years in Jordan Rayford and Ryan Prather Jr. the door-out party for the group.

The Scotland Campus got caught in the crossfire.

After Miller – who ended the night on seven points – got into bad trouble early on, BW began a split in the second quarter.

The Spartans, who led 16:10 to one, broke 9-0 from the following frame.

The second basket of this run was one of the best of the night in BW.

Miller jumped into a fast lane to steal near his own 3-point line and immediately tossed Habib a skip pass with only daylight in front of him. Despite the clear alley, the senior turned a little and threw Travis Roberts an alley for the slam.

Roberts finished the night with 18 points, second on BW behind just Prather’s 24. Next season the junior will be the big man on campus.

“He has a lot of really nice offers,” said Prete. “He’s that rare shooter who just keeps evolving. He learns more about leaving screens, but the boy can shoot the ball with all his might. “

Scotland Campus stayed within reach and was 35:24 behind at halftime. After a threesome, he even came into the second half with 37:29, 1:30. But Bishop Walsh responded great and made a 22-6 flash to bring the result to bed.

In that explosive third frame, Dyachok got 12 points – it ended at 17. Since the Spartans don’t have a traditional tall man, the Russian import had to spend most of the time in the mail.

On the next level, he projects more as a minor striker in New Mexico under the recently hired Lobos head coach Richard Pitino.

“He’s such a mismatch problem,” said Prete. “He had to play five for us this year, he’s really a big three, a little four. I look forward to him, his development.

“He scratched his butt just to come here from Russia. It was really hard during COVID but he found out and came back here. He’s going to be a really tough college player. “

Miller had a final volley in the third. The fourth year security guard drove the paint and quickly turned right to left until he landed under the edge on the left side of the block.

It looked like he had nowhere to go with such a tight angle, but in one movement he shoveled the stone over his shoulder and into the trophy for the athletic finish and drew a roar of approval from the BW bench.

As the most experienced member of Prete’s program, Miller is missing.

“He’s running the team and that’s why he’s going to play in the Big Ten next year,” said Prete. “He does a wonderful job just making sure we are one. He can train, I can get mad at him, as I do very much with everyone. But he can take it and bring it into play.

“That’s why he’s a point guard, and that’s something special. You don’t see it that often anymore. You see people who want to do everything for themselves and he wants to do it for the team. I had him in eighth grade so far and I’ve seen him grow and transform into a man. I look forward to his future. “

The fourth quarter was all about the seniors who produced highlight after highlight until they finally passed the torch on to the younger generation of Spartans.

In the future, it will be up to Roberts, Mikey Allen and Malik Bowman to steer the ship. Until then, the group is well prepared for all adversities.

“They all started at some point during the season, they are all coming back,” said Prete. “I thought it would take us five years to get to this point. We did it in two and a half years.

“COVID has really hindered a lot of things, but we are in a national conference with the seven best teams in the country. Not on the east coast, in the country.

“It’s incredible that we’re going from where we started. Every game next year will be a meat grinder, but I like to do that. “