Kevin Mendez had 10 points in the third quarter to help Greenfield High School outscore Turners Falls High School, 26-10, in the frame and the Green Wave went on to post a mild upset with a 57-45 victory in Hampshire League boys’ basketball action Friday night at Nichols Gymnasium in Greenfield.
The game featured a good deal of back-and-forth play before the Wave took control in the third quarter. Greenfield (5-7) came out of halftime down, 26-19, but went on the big run to go up 9 points entering the fourth quarter and the Wave defense never allowed the Indians (9-3) back into the game.
The win was also big for a Greenfield team that is fighting for its postseason life coming down the stretch this season and needs to win five of its eight remaining games.
The game was a seesaw affair early on and Turners Falls held a 10-9 lead late in the first quarter when Adam Phelps drained a pair of 3-pointers to send the Wave into the second quarter with a 15-10 lead.
“Without those two shots, we probably aren’t in the game after how the second quarter went,” Greenfield coach Tim Caplice remarked.
Things unraveled for Greenfield late in the second quarter, however. Greenfield held a 19-15 lead but the Indians went on an 11-0 run to end the frame — including a 9-0 run by Turners Falls point guard Tionne Brown in that span — that sent the Indians into halftime sporting the seven point (26-19) advantage.
Things turned around in the third quarter and Greenfield put up more points (26) than it did in the entire first half.
“We had good shots in the first half I thought, but we settled a little bit at times,” Caplice said. “In the second half, I thought we got better shots, and more importantly, they were going in. The ball rolled in for us in the third quarter and the kids got their confidence back. We also got contributions up and down the board. It was really refreshing.”
While Mendez had 10 of his team-high 16 points in the frame, Zack Avery also scored 6 of his 12 points. Mendez finished with a big night across the board, adding 14 rebounds, 4 steals and 4 assists. Tyler Boissonneault buried three 3-pointers and finished with 9 points to go along with 7 rebounds, and Connor Joy added 8 assists and 5 rebounds.
Brown scored more than half his team’s points in the loss with 24. Kyle Bergmann added 6 points, and Nick Croteau tossed in 5.
Things don’t get any easier for Turners Falls on Tuesday when it plays host to Hopkins Academy at 7:30. Greenfield travels to Athol High School on Tuesday.
FC Tech 48, Pathfinder 46 — Jared Bergmann’s 10-foot floater from the baseline at the buzzer lifted Franklin County Technical School to a 48-46 win over Pathfinder Regional Technical High School in Tri-County League boys’ basketball action Friday night in Turners Falls.
Pathfinder used a 21-10 scoring advantage in the third quarter to take a 44-36 lead into the fourth quarter but the Franklin Tech defense held Pathfinder to just 2 points in the final frame, both coming on free throws at the midpoint. That allowed the Eagles (7-6) to come back and Bergmann completed the run with his buzzer-beater.
The Eagles came out of a timeout with seconds to play and set up a screen for Joel Farrick, but the Eagles’ guard was double-teamed and was unable to get a shot off. He made the right read on the play and kicked the ball to the corner to Bergmann who was wide open at the 3-point line. Bergmann took one dribble toward the hoop and put up a floater that went through the hoop and sent the Eagles home with the victory.
“It was a well-executed play by Joel,” Franklin Tech coach Matt Llewelyn said. “They defended him pretty well and when he got double-teamed, he found Jared open in the right corner and Jared made a huge shot.”
Making the task of coming back even more daunting in the fourth was that Eagles’ leading scorer Colin Gould fouled out with three minutes to play and the Eagles trailing by five points at 46-41. Bailey Young replaced Gould on the court and played his first minutes of the game at that point. He responded by draining a 3-pointer that helped keep things moving in the right direction for the Eagles.
Franklin Tech finished with just 11 field goals, but shot 21-of-29 from the free throw line.
“Eleven field goals in 32 minutes is bad,” Llewelyn said. “The ball just wasn’t going in. It didn’t matter what we were doing, we just couldn’t make any shots. What was great was that when we attacked the hoop, we got fouled a lot and we made our free throws. For a young team, with its senior captain fouling out down five with three minutes to go, and coming back to win is huge. I could not be happier as a coach.”
Gould finished with a team-high 18 points in the win, while Farrick added 12, and Bergmann tossed in 11.
Andrew Roman paced Pathfinder with 26 points.
Pioneer 59, Frontier 44 — Pioneer Valley Regional School used a 34-11 edge in scoring in the second and third quarters combined to top Frontier Regional School, 59-44, in a HL game Friday night at Goodnow Gymnasium in South Deerfield.
Frontier (4-10) held a 13-11 lead after the first quarter but Pioneer (8-4) outscored the Red Hawks 20-7 in the second quarter and took a 31-20 lead into the break. Pioneer continued to pour it on in the third quarter, using a 14-4 edge in scoring to take a commanding 45-24 lead into the fourth.
Tucker Llewelyn led all scorers with 21 points in the win, and Brendan Emond added 10 points. Hunter Cote hit two 3-pointers to finished with 7, and Karl Wheeler chipped in 5.
Keaton Warren paced Frontier with 12 points. Ben Litskoski and Carsten Carey each added 7, and Jared Muzyka finished with 6.
Pioneer heads to Smith Academy on Tuesday, while Frontier travels to Mahar Regional School.
Mahar 65, Mohawk 27 — Brennan Mailloux scored 16 points to pace a balanced offensive attack and Mahar topped Mohawk Trail Regional High School, 65-27, in a HL boys’ basketball game Friday night in Buckland.
Mailloux was the only player in double figures offensively for the Senators (11-1), who had 10 players score in the win. Mahar led 40-10 at halftime.
Issak Reinikainen netted 9 points for Mahar, while Connor Arsenault, Quinn Gervais and Bryce Cleveland each finished with 8.
Chris Graves hit three 3-pointers and led the Warriors (4-10) with 11 points. Torsten Sloan-Anderson, who continues to slowly come back from an injury by playing limited minutes, finished with 5, and Ian Eckler and Danny Szafran each added 4.
Indians split
Cameron Bradley won two events and qualified for the WMass Individual Championships in one to help Turners Falls to a 71-59 win over Holyoke in a Constitution Division boys’ swimming meet Friday in Holyoke.
Bradley won the 100-yard backstroke in 1 minute, 8.96 seconds to qualify for WMass. That marks the second event he has qualified for after he managed to qualify in the 100 butterfly earlier this season. Bradley also won the 50 freestyle in 27.06.
Bradley teamed up with Ed Reipold, Chase Blair and Nick Taylor to win both the 200 medley relay (2:45.39) and the 200 free relay (1:51.70). Nick Taylor won the 200 free (2:35.08) and the 500 free (6:27.81), and Nikolas Martin came in second in the 100 butterfly in 1:31.42.
The girls suffered a 79-67 loss to Holyoke.
Jade Tyler won both the 100 back 91:13.69) and the 200 free (2:16.58) for the Indians (4-5), and Olivia Whittier won both the 50 free (29.80) and the 100 breast (1:18.71). Melissa Hersey, Whittier, Tyler and Allison Wheeler teamed up to win the 200 medley relay (2:29) and 200 free relay (2:08.11).
Meet 2 results
The Mohawk Trail Regional High School girls’ ski team won the South Division during the PVIAC Meet 2 Thursday night at Berkshire East in Charlemont.
Results were not official until Friday morning due to a timing issue. The boys’ times were released on Thursday but due to an error, the Mohawk boys actually finished second, not third, as was initially reported in Friday’s edition of The Recorder.
On the girls’ side, Mohawk’s Ashley Lacross finished fourth overall in 27.07 and was the top finisher among South Division skiers. Frontier Regional School’s Corriann Delaney was the second quickest South Division skier, and seventh overall, in 27.45.
That helped Mohawk place first as a team in the South with a 113.26. Amherst Regional High School was second at 118.34. Frontier did not have enough skiers to score as a team.
Mohawk had two skiers finish back-to-back in the standings as Tyler Rice took 15th overall in 28.36, and Erin Laffond was 16th in 28.56. Taylor Loomis, also of Mohawk, was 22nd overall for the Warriors at 29.27, while Lizzie Herzig was 24th at 29.42.
Frontier’s Alina Smiaroski came in 26th overall at 30.07, and Mohawk’s Christina Lively was 27th in 30.35. Frontier’s Anna Zera came in 29th in 30.54.