TURNERS FALLS — Turners Falls High School senior Jalen Sanders knew his team’s Tuesday night 64-50 Western Massachusetts Division IV Boys’ Basketball Tournament first-round win over Pioneer Valley Christian School wasn’t pleasing to the eye.
According to the senior big man, though, it wasn’t about looking pretty; it was all about guts and hard work.
“We are always confident, even when the shots aren’t falling. We know it’s all about working hard, because this is the playoffs,” Sanders said of his team, which improved to 9-12 on the season.
Indeed, there were long stretches for both teams during which the shots did not fall. Time and again, Sanders and the seventh-seeded Indians were able to scratch and claw their way to the extra rebound or loose ball. As a result, Turners advances to Friday’s quarterfinal matchup at No. 2 Granby High School.
“We are going to have to finish our layups better, that’s for sure,” added Sanders, looking ahead to Friday. “Keep working hard but finishing our layups is big.”
In fact, it was one of those Sanders hustle plays that provided the night’s most important bucket. Without a true rhythm throughout most of a sloppy first quarter, Sanders parked himself in the offensive paint, where he proceeded to earn four consecutive close-range opportunities, the final three of the tip variety.
His final attempt was true, and with 6 seconds remaining in the first stanza, Turners was back on top, 11-10. The Blue and White never trailed again.
Sanders led all scorers in the game with 26 points.
Tionne Brown added 13 points of his own for Turners, while Tyler Lavin chipped in a trio of treys for his 9 points.
Sanders, Brown and Co. put the game out of reach during a stretch of two minutes, which included the final 45 seconds of the third quarter and ran into the opening moJments of the fourth. Already ahead by eight, 39-31, Anthony Peterson knocked down a jumper, and Sanders added a bucket and free throw to close out the third by stretching the lead to 44-31.
The Indians were not done, though, as the fourth quarter opened with a Brown layup, followed by a corner shorty from Sanders, Peterson’s free throw to set the lead at an insurmountable 49-31 with 6:37 remaining in the contest.
According to Sanders, that was the moment when the Indians knew their strategy needed to change from the attack position to playing smart with the lead.
“We didn’t want to make any stupid mistakes. You know: commit the big turnover,” he said.
The 10th-seeded Eagles (12-9) called a timeout at that point, and mounted a respectable comeback attempt, but their hole was simply too deep.
Noah Connor, Sam Gobeille and Matthew Porter led Pioneer Valley Christian with 11 points apiece.