The road to a Western Mass. title will literally be won, on the road, for area teams.
All but one Recorder area school will have to win on the road in order to advance in the Western Massachusetts basketball tournaments, which begin Monday night. It’s a daunting task — most schools will likely have to win three straight away from home to take home a title — but in a year filled with unexpected outcomes, don’t expect chalk across Western Mass. over the next week.
Oh yeah, five of the seven teams in the respective Western Mass. tournaments will play in Berkshire County. Those trips aren’t for the faint of heart.
The lone local team to open at home is the Turners Falls girls basketball team. The Thunder drew the No. 4 seed in the Class D Tournament (Western Mass. tournaments are now split into Classes A, B, C and D by school enrollment), and will host No. 5 Granby in the quarterfinal round on Monday at 6:30 p.m. The two teams didn’t meet during the regular season, but the Franklin County League South champion Thunder enter having won seven of their last eight games. The winner will play either top-seeded Hoosac Valley or No. 8 Smith Academy in the semifinal round on Wednesday.
Two other local sides qualified for Western Mass. tournaments on the girls side.
In Class B, Frontier ran the table to win the FCL North title, and the Redhawks were rewarded with the No. 5 seed in the field. Frontier will head to the Berkshires and a meeting with No. 4 Pittsfield (9-8) on Monday at 5 p.m. The two teams didn’t see each other during the regular season, and they don’t share any common opponents. The Generals do play a difficult schedule filled with Class A teams, and they scored wins over both Minnechaug and West Springfield this winter. The winner of the Frontier-Pittsfield game will play either top-seeded Wahconah or No. 8 Southwick in the Class B semifinals on Wednesday.
The Franklin Tech girls basketball team drew the No. 6 seed in the Class C Tournament, and will open on the road Monday night against No. 3 Drury in the quarterfinal round. Like the other two matchups involving local girls’ teams, the Eagles and Blue Devils didn’t meet during the regular season, and they don’t share any common opponents. The winner will play either No. 2 Taconic or No. 7 Mount Greylock in Wednesday’s Class C semifinals.
“We’re pretty happy that we were able to qualify for this,” Franklin Tech coach Joe Gamache said. “Heading to the Berkshires is always a challenge, but hopefully we go out and compete. Drury notoriously is a solid basketball program on both the boys and girls sides. They tend to have big, loud crowds so it’ll give a lot of our kids their first taste of postseason experience.”
The Eagles earned the top seed in the upcoming state vocational tournament, and will likely host a semifinal game in that event on Friday. They’ve also qualified for the state tournament.
On the boys side, Frontier’s late-season charge lifted the Redhawks to the No. 5 seed in the Class B Tournament. The Redhawks, as is a common theme for local teams, will head to the Berkshires Monday night for a 6 p.m. quarterfinal against fourth-seeded Monument Mountain in Great Barrington. The winner gets wither No. 1 Taconic or No. 8 Pittsfield in the semifinal round on Wednesday.
The Class C field features two Recorder schools. Greenfield, another team that has played well down the stretch, is the No. 5 seed and will visit No. 4 Lenox in the quarters on Monday at 6:15 p.m. The winner of that game will play either No. 1 Drury or No. 8 Athol, as the Bears snagged the final spot in the eight-team bracket and will head to North Adams on Monday at 7 p.m. in the second game of a doubleheader that opens with the Franklin Tech-Drury girls game.
In Class D, fifth-seeded Pioneer heads on the road to play at No. 4 Granby in a Monday night quarterfinal (7 p.m.). The winner of that game sets either top-seeded Baystate Academy or No. 8 Lee in Wednesday’s semifinal round.
“We’re all in the infancy in how this works,” Pioneer coach Scott Thayer said of the new Western Mass. format. “We got in, so now we have an opportunity. We have an opportunity to go play and see what happens for 32 minutes.”