The Turners Falls High School girls basketball team has waited a long time to leave their home court victorious.
The Thunder hadn’t won a home game since the 2017-18 season, but that changed Thursday night when they came away with a 38-35 victory over Southwick in a Franklin County League South Division contest in the Powertown.
“I feel good for the girls,” Turners coach Ed Marvell said. “They were so excited to be able to win a game on their home court. It was a great feeling.”
With under a minute to play, Lily Spera knocked down a pair of free throws to put the Thunder up 36-35.
Turners then went into a man-to-man press, where Madison Liimatainen got a steal and dished to Kendra Campbell, who was fouled.
Campbell made one-of-two from the stripe to put the Thunder up 37-35, and on the inbound, Liimatainen came up with another steal. She passed it to Taylor Greene who was fouled, and she made one of the two free throws to put Turners up 38-35 with seven seconds left.
The Thunder got a stop to seal the win.
“The press started with two minutes left,” Marvell said. “We needed to change it up. The girls did a great job with it, getting turnovers and holding them at the end.”
Free throws were the difference in the game, as Turners was 12-for-17 from the charity stripe while the Rams were just 10-for-27.
Campbell led the Thunder with 15 points. Steph Peterson scored nine points and Spera added six points, all from the free throw line.
Putnam 51, Pioneer 45 — Paige Loughman nearly lifted Pioneer to a come-from-behind victory on Thursday.
The junior scored a season-high 26 points, drilling a trio of 3-pointers in the process, but the host Panthers were unable to climb all the way back in a 51-45 loss to Putnam in a FCL South contest at Messer Gymnasium in Northfield.
Loughman scored 16 of her 26 in the second half, as Pioneer got within striking distance late but couldn’t pull even.
“She did a little bit of everything,” lauded Pioneer coach Mike Churchill of Loughman. “Really good distributing the ball, strong on the boards… she really picked us up in the second half when we started to struggle and shot us back into the game.”
Steph Scoville added six points and Alina Cecunjanin scored five points for the Panthers (1-2, 1-1).
Putnam (3-1, 2-0) led 27-21 at halftime and 42-33 entering the fourth.
Easthampton 45, Mohawk 33 — The Eagle press gave the Warriors fits on Thursday in Buckland, with Easthampton continuously forcing turnovers to earn a 45-33 win over Mohawk in FCL West action.
“We couldn’t take care of the ball,” Warrior coach Larissa Harrison said.
Mohawk trailed by just two, 13-11, after the first quarter but scored just two points in the second quarter to allow the Eagles to jump out to a 28-13 lead at the break.
The Warriors kept it competitive in the final 16 minutes of action, outscoring Easthampton 20-15 in the second half.
Grace Poplawski led Mohawk with 15 points while Stella Clark scored 11 points and pulled down 15 rebounds.
Hopkins 55, Athol 46 — Geca Baptista poured in a game-high 20 points, and three Athol players scored in double figures on Thursday night. The Red Raiders ran into a hot-shooting Hopkins Academy squad however, as the host Golden Hawks sank seven 3-pointers and scored 36 points in the first half en route to a 55-46 Franklin County League North victory in Hadley.
“We started in zone (defense) and they started hitting 3’s so it’s something to be aware of next time we play them,” Athol coach Kelly Kaczmarczyk said. “We had more success in man (defense).”
Baptista drilled four 3-pointers herself en route to the 20-point effort. Taylor Cleveland followed with 12 points while Haley Bigwood joined them in double figures with 11 points for Athol (3-3, 0-2).
Hopkins (5-1, 2-1) led 36-19 at halftime before Athol outscored the Hawks by a 27-19 margin after the break.
McCann Tech 50, FC Tech 39 — Visiting McCann Tech forced 26 turnovers, preventing Franklin Tech from getting into an offensive rhythm in a 50-39 Tri-County League North loss on Thursday night in Turners Falls.
“Twenty-six turnovers… that’s a big problem for us,” Franklin Tech coach Tim Artus said.
The Eagles (3-3, 0-1) trailed just 23-20 at halftime, but the Hornets outscored them by an 18-8 margin in the third quarter to create some separation.
“They came out with very good energy and we didn’t quite match it,” Artus said of McCann. “They turned us over and offensively we had trouble getting it going.”
Garret Cole led the way for Franklin Tech, scoring 16 points to go with 10 rebounds, eight steals and a block. Bailey Young joined him in double figures with 12 points, including a pair of 3-pointers, and Justin Littlewood tossed in six points and eight rebounds.
The Eagles travel to Greenfield for an independent tilt on Monday.
FC Tech 36, Mohawk 24 — It was a quick night’s work for the Franklin Tech wrestling team Thursday night in Buckland.
With eight of the 10 matches decided by forfeiture, the Eagles and Mohawk Trail only wrestled two matches. Franklin Tech came away with victories via pinfall in both of them to earn a 36-24 independent victory.
“I took four forfeits and he took four forfeits,” Mohawk Trail coach Mark Biagini said. “His middle weights are amazing wrestlers and my middle weights are first-year wrestlers. I didn’t want to put his kids in a position to go brutalize a new kid or risk injury to a kid going to states. We’re trying to be smart as coaches and do what’s best for our kids.”
Warrior seventh-grader Logan Moore, who entered the match with a 2-0 record, dropped a quick two points to Eagle Will Rosenberg before the sophomore got a pin with 35 seconds into the first period.
The second match was contested between Franklin Tech’s Brooks Medeiros and Mohawk’s Dylan Wooldridge at 182.
Medeiros earned two points early in the first period before Wooldridge earned a point with just seconds left in the period.
In the second, Medeiros earned two more points before scoring a pin 1:34 into the period.