ORANGE — A decisive win came just at the right time for the Mahar Regional School boys basketball team on Monday.
The Senators beat visiting Athol, 65-50, in an independent contest at a packed Grzesik-Bixby Gymnasium.
Mahar (5-5) had dropped two straight games, but a strong start to the fourth quarter helped put the Red Raiders away to complete the regular-season sweep in the rivalry.
“This was a must win for us tonight,” Mahar coach Chad Softic said. “We are back at .500 and have five more games at home. I think we can do some damage here.”
The Senators used a big lineup to take advantage of their size and it worked from the opening tip.
“We went small against them the first time,” Softic said. “We thought we could take advantage of some stuff on the offensive glass. But we are still at a point where we don’t know who we are going to get an effort from on a given night.”
Zack Notre scored efficiently in the paint and added a mid-range jumper to his game. Notre scored 16 points to lead the Senators to victory.
The Senators led throughout, but it took until the fourth quarter to put the game out of reach.
“Athol is a good team,” Softic said. “I know what their record is, but they are a handful. That’s a good win for us tonight.”
Charlie Barnes relentlessly attacked the paint, utilizing the floater and a 3-pointer to finish with 12 points.
“I haven’t really had that this season it seems like,” Barnes said of the floater. “It was starting to fall again tonight which was nice. We are just trying to put it together. We started slow to the season but now we are picking it up.”
Mark Ferrari scored 17 points for the Red Raiders, with Bryce King adding nine.
Athol fell behind in the opening minutes and never could quite claw back into the game.
The Red Raiders (3-8) didn’t play with much energy, according to coach Dan Bevis.
“We didn’t come to play,” Bevis said. “Plain and simple. We were flat. We didn’t execute . No energy. The list goes on and on. We got beat. They were the better team.”
Athol hasn’t beaten Mahar since 2017.
“These are the games where you think we don’t need any extra motivation,” Bevis said. “Apparently we needed a lot of it because we didn’t bring any energy. I have to do a better job of getting my team ready to play.”
Mahar’s length got the Senators some easy buckets in the early going. Jakob Carron snagged an offensive rebound and put it back into give the Senators an 11-3 lead with 4 minutes, 21 seconds left in the first quarter.
The early run led to an Athol timeout. The Red Raiders answered quickly with a jump-hook from Ferrari in the paint.
A 3-pointer by Matt Lyseiuk gave Mahar a 23-12 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Lyesiuk scored 10 points for the Senators, and Jake Tenney chipped in with nine.
“Every night, people have to be ready,” Softic said. “Charlie Anderson gave us some nice time in the second quarter. That was key for us.”
Athol’s Maysin Tarbell hit a big 3-pointer early in the second quarter just as the Mahar crowd started to get loud. Tarbell’s 3-pointer pulled the visitors within 25-17.
The Senators answered with a 6-1 run with a drive to the basket by Anderson putting Mahar ahead, 31-18.
Free throws by Vinny Gordon and Ferrari cut the Mahar lead to single-digits.
Anderson managed to bank home a 3-pointer just before halftime, giving the Senators a 35-25 lead at the intermission.
Mahar upped the lead to 48-36 heading into the fourth quarter.
The Senators host Mohawk Trail on Thursday while Athol hosts Belchertown.
