Carsten Carey’s double-double propelled Frontier Regional School past Athol High School, 63-40, in a Hampshire League North Division boys’ basketball game Thursday night at Goodnow Gymnasium in South Deerfield.
Carey finished with 14 points, 13 rebounds and 6 blocked shots to pace the Red Hawks (12-7), who finish the regular season Monday night at home against Smith Academy. Ben Litskoski, Owen Morse and Kalen Evans scored 9 points each for the winners. Donovan Hoffman added 7.
Brymere Edwards led Athol (2-16) with 10 points, and Mark Ferrari added 9.
Pioneer 59, Mahar 51 — It’s becoming a recent trend for the Pioneer Valley Regional School boys’ basketball team to come from behind to win. On Thursday night, the Panthers may have saved their best act for last.
Pioneer scored just 13 points in the first half and trailed 29-13 at the break against defensive-minded Mahar Regional School, but the Panthers roared back in the second half to score 46 points in the final two quarters to post a 59-51 HL South Division victory at Messer Gymnasium in Northfield.
“We don’t want to make a habit of this,” Pioneer coach Scott Thayer said of coming from behind. “We’ve had some really good wins where we’ve gotten down and we kind of drew on that during halftime and said, ‘Why not again?’ All the little things that they did in the first half, we did in the second half and it gave us energy and gave us pace.”
Sam Paul paced Mahar (13-6) in the first half with 14 of his team-high 18 points in the first two quarters to stake the Senators to the 16-point halftime lead. The wheels came off the wagon in the third quarter when the Panthers outscored Mahar, 26-11, and pulled to within a point entering the fourth. The onslaught continued in the fourth as Pioneer took the lead and pulled away.
“We played with a lot of pace and attacked the basket,” Thayer said. “We took our time, played possession by possession. We extended our defense full court, and that benefited us.”
Jordan Loughman finished with 16 points and 7 rebounds for Pioneer, which closed out the regular season 15-5 and should be a top three or four seed when the WMass Division IV seeds are announced one week from Saturday. Garrett Cote finished with 14 points, Troy Emond added 7 and Karl Wheeler had 6 points, 4 rebounds and 4 steals.
Brennan Mailloux netted 13 points for Mahar. Deven Patch chipped in 11.
Hopkins 74, Turners Falls 44 — Jon Morrison poured in 27 points and Hopkins Academy dumped Turners Falls High School, 74-44, in a HL South Division game Thursday in Hadley.
Turners Falls finished the year 6-14.
Andrew Ciaglo and Caleb Graves each scored 12 points for the winners. Justin Ciaglo added 11.
Anthony Peterson paced Turners Falls with 17 points. Tyler Lavin added 10 points and Jimmy Vaughn chipped in 6.
Baystate 61, FC Tech 43 — Desmond Ortiz scored 16 points Thursday night as Baystate Academy defeated Franklin County Technical School, 61-43, in a Tri-County League North Division game in Springfield.
Franklin Tech (10-9) led 10-9 after the first quarter but Baystate outscored the Eagles, 17-6, in the second to take the lead. Vaz Washington, who scored 13 points in the win, finished with a team-high 7 in the frame. Gabriel Candelaria added 10 points.
Jared Bergmann paced the Eagles with 19 points. Seth Aldrich added 8.
The Eagles wrap up the regular season Monday night at home against McCann Technical High School.
Smith Academy 64, Mohawk 45 — Brett Gratz scored 22 points Thursday and Smith Academy drubbed Mohawk Trail Regional High School, 64-45, in HL North boys’ hoop action in Buckland.
Carter Woodward netted 17 points in the win. Matt Bouley chipped in 14.
Jackson Hicks scored 15 points for Mohawk (1-19). Kamron Hoff added 9 points.
Turners Falls 59, Athol 44 — Maddy Chmyzinski poured in a season-high 29 points Thursday night and Turners Falls knocked off Athol, 59-44, in an independent girls’ basketball game at Mallet Gymnasium in Athol.
Chmyzinski hit six 3-pointers en route to her big night. Dabney Rollins continued her solid play this season with 13 points and Abby Loynd tossed in 10.
Destiny Wrigley also hit six 3-pointers to help keep Athol close and finished with 20 points. Turners led by nine points (25-16) at halftime and by eight points (37-29) heading into the fourth before the visitors scored 22 in the final frame to pull away.
Taylor Cleveland scored 9 points for the Red Raiders, and Hailey Bigwood netted 8 points.