In a tightly contested battle of familiar foes, Quincy High’s boys basketball team relied on swarming defense, and some clutch shooting from junior Kevin McDonagh, to topple Pembroke, 50-42, Monday night in a preliminary round game of the Division 3 South Sectional tournament.

Seeded 17th, Quincy (11-10) travels to No. 1 Whitman-Hanson (18-2) on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

“The key to the game for us was Brian Malger, our point guard and best defender,” Quincy coach Dave Parry said. “He set the pace for us offensively and shut down James Coner, which didn’t let Pembroke get into any kind of rhythm offensively. Our specialty this year has been our clamp-down defense, and we had it tonight when we needed it. I’m happy for the kids – getting that first tourney win is nice.”

Quincy had won both regular-season meetings with Pembroke (10-11), each of them close, and the playoff battle was very similar, with neither team able to mount very long rallies.

The Presidents kept their harassing defense all over Pembroke’s main weapons – Coner and 6-4 junior center James Gaine – but with Gaine and senior forward Graham Edwards closing off the inside, Quincy also had trouble scoring and had to resort to outside shooting.

“Quincy matches up well with us, and after they beat us three times, I guess we can say they deserve to go on,” Pembroke coach Paul Wholey said. “We overachieved to get here, and had to win our last game (to qualify for the tournament), and overall I think it was good experience for the kids.”

The decisive sequence for the visitors came in the opening four minutes of the final frame, after a Gaine inside move had closed the gap to 37-35. McDonagh (16 points) popped in a mid-range jumper, and then drained a tough baseline shot moments later.

With the Titans scrambling to get a good shot off, Cedric Dybaud made a huge midcourt steal, followed in short order by a critical McDonagh trey. Suddenly that two-point deficit was turned into a 44-35 hole with just 3:35 to play.

“Quincy pressured us, and I think we rushed our shots as we fell behind,” Wholey said. “Kevin McDonagh had a really nice game for Quincy, and they took it to us. (Quincy center Seth ) Pullum did a good job on Gaine, and they covered Coner well. But we had our opportunities, and I felt like our defense was also very effective – holding them to 23 points in the first half.”

The Titans’ major consolation is that most of their team, nine of their 13 players, will be returning, including Gaine and Coner.

“Nine kids coming back, I think we’ll be OK next year,” said Wholey.

Three Presidents – Malger, Dybaud, and James Nguyen – each had 8 points for Quincy, which prides itself on balanced scoring. Gaine led Pembroke with 14, while Edwards added 13. Pullum and Gaine led their respective teams with 10 rebounds each.

“Kevin McDonagh is peaking as a shooter, after a slow start to the season,” noted Parry. “We’ve now won six of our last seven, or seven of our last eight. Kevin has been giving us 12 to 20 points per game in that stretch, and we have a bunch of other guys who are always around eight points. You can’t concentrate on any one scorer with us, and that’s a nice balance to have.”

And how do the Presidents deal with top seeded Whitman-Hanson?

“Talk about offense, coach (Bob) Rodgers’ team runs on nitro,” Parry laughed. “But rest assured, we will show up and play hard and see what