TURNERS FALLS — The picture looked fairly promising for Franklin County Technical School early in the third quarter Tuesday night, when the Eagles built a 10-point lead in their Western Massachusetts Boys’ Division IV Basketball Tournament first-round game.
Visiting Westfield Technical Academy had other ideas, quickly erasing that deficit with a 13-0 run. The teams were tied after three quarters, but the 3-point bombing of freshman Tyler Hastings helped Franklin Tech regain control in the fourth en route to a 53-44 victory and a berth in the WMass quarterfinals.
Colin Gould led the fifth-seeded Eagles (18-5) with 16 points, while Hastings (three 3-pointers) and 6-foot-6 Zach Korpiewski each scored nine and CJ Daignault eight in Franklin Tech’s third victory of the season over its Tri-County League rival.
Twelfth-seeded Westfield Tech wrapped its season at 11-10, getting 13 points from big man Tim Shevchenko and eight each from Tyler French and Alex Stepanchuk.
“You’ve got to give (Westfield Tech) credit, they made some good shots, got the ball inside to their big guys and got offensive rebounds,”
said Eagles coach Matt Llewelyn. “But we take pride in our conditioning. We always know when the fourth quarter comes, the last four minutes are our best.”
The Tigers’ 13 straight points, including nine by Shevchenko and four from Stepanchuk, gave them a 29-26 lead inside the final two minutes of the third quarter. Alex McBurnie ended the run with a driving score for the Eagles, and Hastings dropped in his first trey from the right corner with 29 seconds to go to forge a 31-31 tie.
Gould began the fourth quarter with a pair of free throws and Hastings added another deep ball to make it 36-31. Stepanchuk scored for Westfield on an offensive rebound, but Korpiewski converted on an inbounds pass. The Tigers’ Luis Ruiz answered with an inside basket before Daignault grabbed a missed shot and took the ball coast-to-coast for a driving layup and a 40-35 lead, forcing a Westfield timeout with 4:43 left.
Franklin Tech remained hot after the break, though, running off six more consecutive points with a left-wing three by Hastings and Daignault’s old-fashioned three-point play. That finished off the Eagles’ decisive 18-4 run and put them ahead 46-35 with 2:47 remaining.
“What I had to do was risky,” said Hastings of his late three-point barrage. “If I missed, it could have put the team down. But if I made them, it would give us the confidence to pull the game through and get the W. Being a freshman on varsity is a big deal, and I knew I couldn’t let my team down.”
“That’s his best game three-point-wise all year, and it couldn’t have come at a better time,” said Llewelyn of Hastings. “Our strength is inside, so they packed in their zone and made it a little tough on us, daring us to shoot the three. We finally found a guy in Tyler who was able to knock them down. Without him tonight, it could have gone the other way.”
Much earlier, the first quarter seesawed until Franklin Tech scored the last nine points to lead 15-8 after the first eight minutes. Joel Farrick got the Eagles started with an 18-footer from the left corner, Korpiewski and Gould combined for three free throws, Korpiewski posted up for two more and Corey Johnson hit from the right baseline with 11 seconds to go.
Two buckets by Ruiz helped the Tigers close to within 19-16, as Franklin Tech went the last five minutes of the half without a field goal. Farrick hit a free throw and Gould added two more as the hosts went to the locker room ahead 22-16.
On the strength of their runner-up finish in the state Small School Vocational Tournament last weekend and Tuesday’s win, the Eagles will carry their postseason momentum out to fourth-seeded Lenox Memorial High School (11-9) for Thursday’s 7 p.m. quarterfinal.
“Any Berkshire team, you have to give respect to, but we won’t fear them,” said Llewelyn. “They have the reputation of playing tough and playing physical. But we’ll have a great game plan and we’ll give them a dogfight.”