Eight Berkshire County Teams Saturday Go After Western Mass Titles

The state tournaments in basketball and hockey are set to get under way next week, but at least two Berkshire County teams Saturday will have a chance to start hoisting some hardware.

 

Eight local teams in all will compete for six different Western Massachusetts District 1 trophies on the same day they will officially learn their assignments in the state tourneys.

 

A full day of basketball action at Holyoke High School will feature five county squads in four games, starting when the first local champ of the day is crowned in a noon tipoff between the Lenox and Hoosac Valley girls basketball teams.

 

The Hurricanes (16-4) are a familiar sight on Western Mass championshp Saturday, going back to their run of seven sectional crowns in eight years from 2013-20, going back to the days when the Western Mass tournament was part of the state tourney.

 

Hoosac Valley then made it nine titles in 10 tourneys (there was no basketball post-season in 2021) when it won the inaugural Western Mass District 1 trophy last winter against Lee.

 

Lenox has not been to the Western Mass finals since 2012, but the resurgent Millionaires are on a roll, winning seven straight to take a 15-5 record into Saturday's final.

 

Along the way, the Millionaires avenged one of their five losses, doubling up Hopkins Academy, 53-25, when the teams met in the Western Mass quarter-finals on Monday.

 

The Taconic boys take the court in the 2 p.m. game at Holyoke. The Thunder have been second only to the Hoosac Valley girls when it comes to recent success in the Western Mass tournaments.

 

Taconic has won four straight Western Mass titles going back to the 2018 season.

 

On Saturday, the Thunder (18-2) get a rematch with Springfield International Charter School, which it edged a year ago in the Western Mass final by three points and, more recently, beat by seven points on Feb. 13 in Springfield.

 

Speaking of familiar foes, the Drury girls have the 4 p.m. tip at Holyoke High against Springfield ICS.

 

Last year, the Bulldogs denied Drury a spot in the Division 5 state Final Four by one point when the teams met at American International College.

 

This winter, Class C top seed Springfield ICS has a pair of wins over Drury (10-10).

 

“It will be the sixth time we have played them the last two seasons," Drury coach Ian Downey said after Wednesday's semi-final win. "We’ve played them well, but haven’t gotten over the hump. I can promise you that we are up to the task though.”

 

Drury's boys are making their fourth straight trip to a Western Mass final. The Blue Devils (11-9) lost last year's Western Mass final to eventual Division 5 state finalist Paulo Freire. Drury also won the last two sectinonal tournament finals at Curry Hicks Cage, in 2019 and 2020.

 

Saturday's final will be the Devils' third game against Hampshire South Division rival Greenfield. Drury won the first two meetings with the Green Wave, 70-66 and 67-64.

 

The fifth basketball final involving local teams is the second all-Berkshire County final of the day.

 

That one takes place at Westfield High, where the girls from Pittsfield (17-3) and Wahconah (17-3) will decide the Class B title at 2 p.m.

 

Last year, Wahconah beat the Generals in the regional semi-finals on the way to winning a Western Mass crown at Westfield High.

 

The Generals are back in the finals for the first time since 2017, when they won at the Cage to advance to the state semi-finals.

 

Although technically it has been since 2009 that Taconic has appeared in a Western Mass final (a 6-3 loss to eventual Division 3A state champion Holyoke), the Thunder (10-5) are the successor to the co-operative team formerly hosted by Wahconah.

 

In 2020, Wahconah dropped a 2-1 overtime thriller to Greenfield in the Western Mass Division 3A final.

 

On Saturday at 1:30, second-seeded Taconic will face off against No. 1 Greenfield at 1:30 at the Olympia Ice Center for the Western Mass Class C crown.

 

Tickets to all the Western Mass finals must be purchased online by visiting https://pviac.hometownticketing.com/embed/all?single=1&schools=9