After a brief Wednesday respite, the Western Massachusetts Basketball Tournaments resume tonight, as five local teams still have their crosshairs fixed on capturing sectional championships.
Things haven’t been easy for the locals, as slow starts and first-round upsets plagued them on Monday and Tuesday. Higher-seeded teams in Mahar Regional School (4th, D-III) and Pioneer Valley Regional School (7th, D-III) were knocked out on their home floors in the boys’ opening round, and after a Franklin County Technical School road loss, Turners Falls High School remains as the last surviving boys’ team.
Both Turners and the Mahar girls’ team found themselves in early deficits before rebounding to capture victories, while the Pioneer girls breezed to a spot in the quarterfinals. Greenfield High School and Turners are the only teams yet to play a game in the postseason, as both sides received a first-round bye and open the D-III Girls Tournament on Friday night.
Here’s a closer look at the four quarterfinals that await over the next two nights.
Boys: No. 5 Murdock at No. 4 Turners, 7 — For the fourth consecutive year, Turners Falls will play in the quarterfinal round with a trip to the Curry Hicks Cage on the line.
Turners, which beat Sizer School of Fitchburg in the first round, will tangle with No. 5 Murdock of Winchendon (13-7) tonight in a rematch of the regular-season opener played way back on Dec. 13. Turners captured a 77-65 win in that tilt, but a lot has changed for both sides since then.
“We’ve played Murdock for a couple of years now. They’re pretty physical, pretty quick, so it’s going to be their speed versus our size,” offered veteran Turners Falls coach Gary Mullins.
Murdock point guard L.J. Hicks will lead the Blue Devils into the quarters after a first-round victory over Lenox Memorial High School.
“We know he’s a good player, he runs the show for them,” said Mullins of Hicks.
Turners (13-8) needed a quarter of action to get into the swing of things against Sizer, but Mullins said he hopes that won’t be an issue in tonight’s game.
“They’ve given me a couple of nice days of practice,” he explained. “There’s no guarantee we’re going to play well, but once we got ourselves running the other night, I thought we got comfortable and were able to play some of the way we’re capable of playing.”
A win would send Turners through to the Cage for the first time since 2015. The squad lost in the D-IV quarterfinals to Granby High School a year ago.
“I think they’re ready but revenge is a very strong factor in all sports,” Mullins cautioned, referring to the season-opening win. “(Murdock has) that going for them because we beat them the first time. We have the home-court advantage. So, if you want to cancel those two things out, I think it’s pretty much a pick’em.”
Girls: No. 5 Mahar at No. 4 Greenfield, 7 — The lone matchup featuring two local schools will highlight a crowded Friday night slate, as Mahar travels to Nichols Gymnasium in Greenfield for a quarterfinal game against the high-powered Wave (19-1).
“I know they’re a very athletic team,” Greenfield coach John Hickey said of Mahar. “They’re aggressive, they like to hit the glass, and they’re well-coached. I told my kids at practice (Wednesday) that the only difference between 4 and 5 seeds is one of them gets a home game. So we’re expecting a battle.”
The two teams met once during the regular season — a 66-52 Greenfield home win on Jan. 16. Both sport huge winning streaks entering this game, however, with the Wave winners of 19 straight and Mahar (16-5) winners of 12 in a row.
“Playing them once and beating them really doesn’t mean much now,” Hickey said. “The season starts all over. If you want to move onto the Cage, and that’s one of our goals, you have to win Friday night. Our mindset now is not playing a team we already played but a team that we have to beat to get to where we want to go.”
Girls: No. 6 Lenox at No. 3 Turners, 7 — Turners will try to make history Friday night, when Lenox Memorial High School comes to the Powertown for a D-IV quarterfinal.
The program hasn’t won a tournament game since the 1993-94 season, when it beat Frontier Regional School in the quarterfinals. In fact, Turners went more than 20 years without a postseason appearance until last season’s first-round loss to Pioneer broke that streak.
Turners (15-5) enters the postseason winners of seven straight games, and they welcome a Lenox club that sits 12-9 overall after a 66-25 first-round win over Sizer School. The Berkshire County foe will be the third of the season for the Powertown side. They lost a tight 38-35 decision in the season-opener to Lee High School, the top seed in the D-IV field, while also sweeping two wins against McCann Technical School.
Girls: No. 7 Pioneer at No. 2 Quaboag, 7 — It’ll be a second straight central Mass. opponent for the Panthers Friday night, as they’ll travel to Quaboag Regional High School (14-6) after knocking off North Brookfield High School, 54-24, in Tuesday’s opening round.
The host Cougars have won the last three D-IV championships, including a 61-41 win in last year’s title game against Mount Everett Regional School. With that pedigree, however, Pioneer (12-9) enters the quarterfinal showdown with nothing to lose.
“I know quite a bit about them. I went and watched them. … It’s the same girls playing,” Pioneer head coach Meg Burrington said of Quaboag following her team’s win over North Brookfield. “We’re prepared for them and we are going to try our hardest.”
A win would send Pioneer to back to the Cage for the first time since 2015, when the Panthers fell to Monson High School in the D-IV semifinals.