The gymnasium at Pioneer Regional High School may have been ice cold, but Panther forward Troy Emond was red hot Friday against Turners Falls.
The junior scored a game-high 28 points on 10 made field goals to lift Pioneer over the Thunder, 65-51, at an unusually cold Messer Gymnasium in Northfield.
Emond is one of the few returning players for coach Scott Thayer’s squad that made it to the Western Massachusetts Division 4 semifinals a year ago. Thayer knows it’s a process for the players to learn how to play with each other, but was proud of the way his star forward stepped up.
“That’s the first game Troy has looked like Troy,” coach Scott Thayer said. “We lost nine seniors so we’re learning a new way to play and all these guys are stepping up into new roles and you have to feel your way through it.”
Emond made the lone two 3-pointers on the night for Pioneer in the Hampshire South contest, as the Panthers constantly attacked the basket against the Turners defense. It worked, as Pioneer found itself at the charity stripe often, knocking down 21 free throws.
“We didn’t play well and they shot the ball well,” Turners coach Gary Mullins said. “They got the ball to the rim a lot more than I thought they might. I thought they’d be a more exterior team but they drove the ball well against us tonight.”
The Panthers got out to a 14-6 lead after the first eight minutes, but the Thunder roared back and cut the Pioneer lead to 42-37 going into the fourth quarter. The Panthers went on a big run to start the quarter to pull out the win.
Jayden Fox (14) and Jared Hubbard (10) joined Emond in double-figures for Pioneer.
Chace Novak led Turners Falls with 16 points, knocking down his teams lone two 3s. Marcus Sanders added 13 points and Anthony Peterson scored 10.
Greenfield 60, Smith Academy 31 – The Wave picked up the energy in the wire-to-wire Hampshire North win over the Falcons in Hatfield.
“Energy was good for a vacation game,” Greenfield coach Angelo Thomas said. “Just didn’t make a lot of shots.
Mason Meadows led all scorers with 17 points for Greenfield.
Henry Zwart did the distributing for the Wave with six assists.
David Carey led the defensive charge with six steals to go along with eight points.
Frontier 77, Mohawk 30 — The Red Hawks found their rhythm offensively Friday night on their home court, knocking down a dozen 3-pointers to earn a 77-30 win over the Warriors.
Brett Robinson drilled four 3s, Adan Hernandez poured in three, Donovan Hoffman drained a pair and Gabe Gochinnski, Ian Spearane and Sean Richter each knocked a 3 down.
“They absolutely shot the ball with confidence tonight,” Frontier coach Ben Barshefsky said.
Robinson and Peter Carey led the Red Hawks with 13 points.
Anthony Moffatt made three 3s to lead Mohawk with nine points. The Warriors scored 15 points in the final three quarters of action.
Athol 66, North Brookfield 28 – The Red Raiders picked up their first win of the season behind 24 points, 15 rebounds and three steals from Mark Ferrari.
Conal Tontodonato scored his first varsity points for Athol in the home independent win.
“We put it together for four quarters” Athol coach Dan Bevis said. “We limited what they could do offensively.”
Vinny Gordon scored 11 points with seven rebounds and four steals for Athol. Also getting in double-figures was Bryce King who scored 13 points with six steals.
Quaboag 46, Mahar 40 – The offense could not get going for the Senators in a road independent loss in Warren.
We really struggled offensively and nobody really looked like they wanted to be the guy to score for us,” Mahar coach Chad Softic said. “We need guys to be shot-makers, nobody should be deferring to anyone.”
Zack Notre scored 13 points with nine rebounds for the Senators.
Aden Santana added seven points for Mahar.
Athol 35, North Brookfield 21 – In junior varsity action, the Red Raiders picked up the win behind 11 points from Connor Mahony and 14 points from Dilan Fountain.
Franklin Tech 55, Westfield Tech 43 – A switch to man defense in the third quarter helped the Eagles pull away from the Tigers in the road independent win.
Westfield Tech cooled down from the 3-point line after the defensive switch after a halftime by Franklin Tech.
Bailey Young continued his offensive hot-streak with 22 points on four 3-pointers.
Garrett Cole added 14 points with nine rebounds and two blocks.
Chicopee Comp 41, Greenfield 31 – The Green Wave struggled to find its offense in a road independent loss to the Colts on Friday afternoon.
Even with a ton of attention from the Chicopee Comp defense, Katie Haselton scored 14 points with 16 rebounds and five steals.
Bryanna Rivera added nine points for the Wave. Racquel Provost corralled six rebounds.
Mahar 47, Quaboag 42 – The Senators had to survive a late comeback attempt to pull off the win over the Cougars in Orange.
The Senators led 21-8 at halftime before Kiarra Dorman got hot in the second half for Quaboag.
Saylor Kegans notched her first-ever double-double with Mahar, scoring 13 points with 12 rebounds.
Siobhan Davis helped out on the glass with 11 rebounds.
Micalyn Maillox led Mahar with 11 points with Delaney Parker adding eight.
Ludlow 53, Turners 22 — The Thunder finished the first quarter tied 10-10, but the Lions press game them problems the rest of the way as Turners fell, 53-22, on the road.
Freshman Steph Peterson had a strong game, scoring six points and pulling down 11 rebounds. Eighth grader Lily Spera led the Thunder with seven points and fellow classmate Taylor Greene scored four points.
Turners coach Ed Marvel was pleased with the effort his young team has displayed through the early portion of the season.
“Even though we’re young, the players are not giving up,” Marvel said. “I give them all the credit in the world for that.”
Josh Brunelle had an impressive showing for the Franklin County Technical School wrestling team at the Pentucket Holiday Tournament on Friday, placing second at 132-pounds in West Newbury on Friday.
Brunelle picked up three straight pins to make it to the finals, where he fell to Timberlane’s Erik Kappler in a 6-1 decision.
Will Rosenburg placed sixth at 106-pounds after picking up a victory over Nicole Zeng of Malden/Everett.
Franklin Tech placed 16th out of 21 teams.