The rematch a year in the making tips off tonight.
Defending-champion Pioneer Valley Regional School played one of the most memorable games in program history in last year’s WMass Division 4 semifinals. Behind Garrett Cote’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer, the Panthers snagged a 69-68 victory over Drury to punch their ticket to the sectional title game. A few days later, Pioneer finished the job, knocking off top-seeded Hopkins Academy to win its first title since 2000.
Fast forward a year, and tonight’s 8 p.m. semifinal rematch with third-seeded Drury (17-5) feels eerily familiar. No. 2 Pioneer (19-3) rolls into the Curry Hicks Cage on the campus of UMass winners of eight of its last nine games. That one loss? Well, that came at the hands of the aforementioned Blue Devils. On the road in North Adams, the Panthers dropped a 84-63 decision on Feb. 8.
Losing to Drury in the regular season is not unfamiliar territory for Pioneer. In last year’s season-opener, the Panthers were thumped, 77-47, only to then turn the tables when the squads met again in the semifinals. But unlike last year, the defending champions won’t be under the radar. After winning last year’s title, they’ve cruised to a sterling 19-3 record, including an undefeated Hampshire League South Division mark. The squad kept rolling into the postseason, picking off No. 15 Smith Voke, 73-35, before edging No. 7 Baystate Academy, 74-63, in the quarterfinals.
“We’re as healthy as we’ve been all year, playing as well as we can expect to be playing going into this game,” offered Pioneer head coach Scott Thayer, who is 51-15 in his three years with the program. “We’re all happy with where we’re at right now. It’s a matchup that everybody’s relishing. Let’s go play and have some fun.”
For the Blue Devils, their path back to the Cage went smoothly. Drury thumped No. 14 Pioneer Valley Christian, 86-34, in the opening round, before handling crosstown foe McCann Tech, the sixth-seeded team in the Div. 4 field, 85-53, in the quarters.
The Blue Devils have scored at a high clip this winter. Through 22 games, they’re averaging 72.8 points per outing, with six games of 80 or more points. In last month’s win over Pioneer, Drury put up 48 points in the first half en route to the lopsided victory.
Making the engine run for Drury offensively has been junior Scott McGuire Jr. The guard is averaging a whopping 26.8 points per game this winter, a total of 589 points that helped him eclipse the 1,000-point mark just a few weeks ago against Hoosac Valley. McGuire put up 38 points in the quarterfinal win over McCann Tech, and he also scored 32 in the win over Pioneer during the regular season. In last year’s semifinal loss to the Panthers, McGuire scored 18 points.
“He’s taken his game to a new level,” lauded Thayer of McGuire Jr. “He’s a load. He’s grown since last year and he’s improved. He’s a cerebral player, never gets too high or too low. We’ve got our hands full with him, no question.”
Senior Reece Racette is another name plenty familiar to Pioneer fans. The point guard scored 22 points in last year’s semifinal matchup, including his 1,000th career point in the third quarter. But Racette also had a hand in giving the Panthers a shot at stealing the game at the buzzer, when he missed two free throws with 5.3 seconds left that kept Drury’s lead at one possession. He’s had another strong season helping the Devils return to the Cage, averaging 17.9 points, 8.4 rebounds and 5.3 assists.
Drury is playing to get over a semifinal hump that dates back a decade. The Blue Devils are 0-6 in their last six games at the Cage, with the last victory coming in the 2009 Div. 2 semifinals against Mohawk. That squad went on to fall to Hoosac Valley, 49-26, in the championship game.
The Devils’ five losses this season have all come against tournament teams, including Div. 2 tourney foes Taconic and Pittsfield. Drury lost to Taconic twice, Wahconah twice and Pittsfield once, while picking up impressive wins over Pittsfield, Paulo Freire and Monument Mountain.
“The’ve had us probably circled for awhile. I imagine this is something they’ve been looking forward to,” said Thayer of Drury drawing his side in the semis again. “I think we’re still coming in as the underdogs. Before the tournament started, the optics of it, they’re probably the team to beat. They have all the motivation in the world considering what happened last year. For us, we’re doing our due diligence. We’ll try and play the game in segments and keep connected to them as long as we can.”
In stark contrast to Drury, Pioneer enters tonight’s contest with a much-different looking roster than last year’s semifinal game. The Panthers graduated four of their top five scorers, with just Cote back from that grouping. The senior point guard has taken his game to another level, and he enters with a healthy 20.1 point per game average this winter. After pouring in 32 points, including the game-winner, in last year’s meeting, Cote must come up big once again if the Panthers have any shot at getting back to the championship game.
Cote’s supporting cast looks quite different from last year, but there’s been an impressive maturation from what is a largely inexperienced core. Sophomore Troy Emond (11.8 ppg) saw minutes as a freshman and has seen his workload increase significantly as the team’s second-leading scorer. Senior Zack Fox (8.4 ppg) has developed into the team’s top interior presence, while freshman guard Jared Hubbard has quickly become one of Pioneer’s most reliable players to the tune of 9.4 points per game. His outside shooting is also a potential game-changer.
Senior Ryan Underwood (5.5 ppg) missed time due to an injury during the regular season but has rounded into form nicely. His performance in last week’s quarterfinal win over Baystate Academy was indeed a difference-maker, and he is one of just a few players on the roster with postseason experience from last year’s run.
Jacob Fuller, Ryan Potter and Joel Emberley are all players likely to see time against Drury.
“We’ve seen pretty much anything teams are going to run at Garrett,” Thayer said. “The last seven or eight games, we’ve had a number of kids step up and facilitate for us. If we can get three or four guys in double figures, that’s a benefit for us. We don’t want to have to rely on Garrett getting 45 or 50 points. That’s probably not the best path for us to be able to win the game.”
The game is the third in a tripleheader at the Cage tonight, which kicks off with Div. 3 boys semifinal games — Frontier-Narragansett at 5 p.m. and Sabis-Wahconah at 6:30. The Div. 4 title game is Saturday at 12:15 p.m. back at UMass. The winner will face top-seeded Ware, which advanced to the finals on Monday with a 67-44 win over Monson.
“I’ve coached long enough to know that funny things happen at the Cage. Weird things happen,” Thayer explained. “We don’t want our energy or effort level to be connected to how many shots we make or miss. Drury can quickly bury you. Our margin for error is way less than theirs is. That’s fine, we understand that. It’s not a secret, but there’s a reason why we still have to go out and play the game.”