NORTHFIELD — Five games into the regular season, it would’ve been difficult to fathom Pioneer Valley Regional School playing for a share of the Hampshire League on Tuesday night. Sitting at just 2-3 overall, the Panthers were a long ways from challenging the top teams in the area.
But Scott Thayer’s team turned it on in a big way late in the season. The Panthers, buoyed by newly-minted 1,000-point scorer Tucker Llewelyn, won 13 of 14 games entering the regular season finale. With a share of the HL title on the line however, the Panthers were unable to slay two-time defending Western Mass. champion Hopkins Academy. The visiting Hawks took the lead for good midway through the second quarter, utilizing their three-headed monster of Sam’i Roe, Jon Morrison and John Earle en route to a 74-59 victory that gave Hopkins an outright HL title inside a crowded Messier Gymnasium.
“Of course you want to win a game like this but I told the guys, ‘You worked yourself back into the race and got the opportunity to play for a championship,” offered Thayer. “We have to keep it in perspective. To sit at 2-3 early in the season, we’ve improved a lot since that point.”
Hopkins (18-2, 15-1 HL) capped off the outright title with the trio of Roe, Morrison and Earle combining for 67 of the team’s 74 points. The Hawks, whose lone league loss came to Mahar Regional School, got out in transition for the majority of the night, finishing around the rim for easy buckets while also sinking timely 3-pointers.
“Pioneer is a good team and they’re going to do good things in the playoffs so this was a big win — our best effort all year,” said Hopkins head coach Angelo Thomas. “It’s a huge win to get the outright (title); it’s good for our fans and the team.”
Riding the momentum of the late season winning streak, Pioneer came out charged in front of a rowdy home crowd. The Panthers took a 14-11 lead after one quarter and extended the advantage to 16-11 after a Bryce Dobosz runner in the lane to open the second.
With Pioneer big man Brendan Emond on the bench with two early fouls however, Hopkins clawed back largely thanks to Morrison. The team’s top interior option, Morrison scored 14 of his 20 points in the first half. The Hawks put together a 13-2 run, regaining control up 30-20 and forcing Thayer to call timeout with 2:05 left in the half.
“Basketball is a game of runs and against a good team like Pioneer, you have to be able to weather the early storm,” explained Thomas. “We’ve struggled in the first half this year and we really concentrated on playing with a sense of urgency to combat that.”
Still, the Panthers stayed within shouting distance at the free throw line before the half. Llewelyn sank six from the charity stripe in the final 1:02, cutting the deficit to just 33-28 at intermission.
“At halftime only down (5 points), I was comfortable with that,” Thayer said. “We had some good looks, a lot of good looks, but they just weren’t falling for the most part.”
Tyler Martin’s 3-pointer early in the third quarter had the Panthers down just 35-31, but Hopkins put together an 11-2 run in response that really put things out of reach. Out in transition yet again, the Hawks scored in a hurry — extending the advantage to 46-33 with 4:13 left in the third.
“You can only hold a team like (Hopkins) down for so long,” admitted Thayer. “Earle (28 points) hit some big 3’s to stem the tide but you can really only guard them for so long. They’re a dangerous offensive team.”
Martin scored 15 of his team-high 17 points in the second half for Pioneer (15-5, 13-3), but the deficit never shrank below nine points the rest of the way. Hopkins led 58-46 entering the fourth before Roe (19 points), son of former UMass star Lou Roe, scored the first 7 points of the fourth quarter to make it a 65-46 advantage.
Llewelyn joined Martin in double figures with 14 points in the loss, while Emond scored 10 of his 11 points in the second half after sitting for over 10 minutes of action in the first half with the two fouls. Martin added 6 rebounds and 6 assists for the Panthers while Llewelyn notched 5 boards and 4 assists.
“I thought we played a lot better than the first time we saw them (a 73-54 loss on Jan. 9),” Thayer said. “Now it’s a matter of finding out our seed and hopefully we’ll get a home playoff game and go from there.”
The seeding meeting for the Western Mass. Division III Tournament is scheduled for Saturday, with the postseason kicking off next week.