LOWELL — It’s not often a team can be called the ‘Greatest Team in School History’ but Pioneer Valley may have just laid claim to that title.

The top-seeded Panthers (26-0) finished off an unprecedented undefeated season with an impressive 49-28 victory over No. 2 Hopedale (22-3) to capture the Division 5 boys basketball state championship at Tsongas Center.

Brayden Thayer was outstanding with a game-high 26 points – all coming in the first three quarters – and fellow senior Alex McClelland did the rest with 13 points, 10 rebounds and five assists for the Panthers.

This was Pioneer Valley’s fourth trip to the state finals and it now owns three state championships, adding to the 1996 and 1997 titles.

“This is amazing especially to go undefeated at 26-0. Statistically speaking we are the greatest team ever at the school, but none of us expected this and we just took it one day and one game at a time,” said Thayer. “Especially for us seniors, this being our last game ever together it’s just so memorable. We are just so unselfish, finding the open guy and we trust every guy on the floor to make a play.”

Hopedale was right in the middle of things just as Thayer was heating up in the first quarter. Thayer drained one of his six three-pointers to put the Panthers up late in the quarter, but Patrick Madden was up for the challenge and matched Thayer with a three-pointer at the buzzer to give Hopedale the 11-10 lead.

Pioneer Valley celebrates after defeating Hopedale to capture the Division 5 state championship Saturday at the Tsongas Center. (Staff Photo By Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald)

With momentum clearly with the Blue Raiders out of the break, the stifling Panthers defense returned as the first quarter jitters ended. Hopedale came into the finals averaging just over 63 points per game in the state playoffs but couldn’t figure out the stacked defense of the Panthers.

Pioneer Valley went on a 15-2 run in the second quarter to end any ideas of the upset and led 25-13 heading into halftime.

“I thought we were in great shape and obviously it was a close game at that point. We were playing pretty good defense and getting back so they weren’t getting any transition baskets,” said Hopedale head coach Tony Cordani. “I knew the way (Pioneer Valley) played defense we were going to have a lot of perimeter shots from the outside and we just needed to knock down a few of them.”

After the 15-2 rout in the second, the cold shooting for the Blue Raiders continued as they finished 5-of-20 from beyond the arc, which doomed the hopes of Hopedale. Madden did all he could with a team-high 13 points while senior counterpart Brayden Lewis was the hustle and muscle with eight rebounds on the glass for the Blue Raiders.

Pioneer Valley head coach Scott Thayer couldn’t have written a better script and marked the historical win as bittersweet in his final game coaching his son.

But Thayer also pointed to being with each senior, including his son Brayden, as a coach since their seventh-grade season.

“Our defense and rebounding have been the key to our success all year long. We just believe in what we do and make it hard for other teams to score the ball. We have those spurts and once we get out ahead – we just suffocate it,” said coach Thayer. “Last night we had a team dinner, and everybody left, and I was just sitting by myself, and the emotions were high. It’s a tricky dynamic but it’s one we’ve really worked out. To know this is the last game that I will ever coach him, it couldn’t be any better.”