AMHERST, Mass. -- After holding Turners Falls to one basket in the first quarter and 10 points in the first half, there was plenty of reason for Mount Greylock to be smiling about its defense.
"I thought we kind of controlled the tempo of the game early," Mounties coach Bob Thistle said after a 61-24 win in the Pioneer Valley Tip-Off at Curry Hicks Cage.
"We mixed a couple of presses in and mixed a couple of defenses in. And none of that matters if you don't rebound. So, back to basics, I thought we rebounded well."
Sean McCormack had six first-half rebounds as Mount Greylock (1-0) earned a 19-15 advantage on the boards.
Point guard Sam Dils crashed the boards for four caroms while passing out five of his six assists before half-time.
Brady Foehl scored 13 of his game-high 15 points in the first half.
A balanced Mount Greylock attack saw McCormack score 13 and Toby Foehl add 12 -- nine on 3-pointers.
Saturday morning's contest marked a return to varsity competition for McCormack, who suffered a season-ending injury in the Mounties' Western Massachusetts semi-final football game.
"He's working his way back from a concussion," Thistle said. "He's cleared to play. It's just conditioning. He's practiced enough for us to put him on the floor.
"But we have to have rebounding from guys other than Sean. And I thought Brady Foehl and Cole Wojtkowski did a good job. When you rebound and play good defense, hopefully good things will happen."
Mount Greylock came out like a house afire, scoring on six of its first seven possessions and going ahead, 16-0, when Dils (seven points) scored in transition midway through the first quarter.
It was 26-3 at the end of one after Toby Foehl set up Dils for a 3-pointer to cap a 10-0 run to end the period.
Turners Falls (0-1) scored on its first couple of possessions to start the second quarter, but then Mount Greylock's defense held Turners scoreless for about five minutes, a stretch that included six turnovers.
Toby Foehl hit a pair of triples at the end of the half to send the Mounties to the locker room up, 39-10.
Most of the second half belonged to Mount Greylock's bench. And it made the most of the opportunity.
Ten different Mount Greylock players got into the scoring column. Quinn Johnstadt, Zeke Locklear and Bennett Zimmerman each came off the bench to grab three second-half rebounds.
"We had tryouts, and we picked our team, but we're still looking, early in the season, to see who's going to round out our bench," Thistle said. "We want to create a competitive environment at practice where we can say, 'This is the seventh man,' or, 'This is the eighth man,' stepping up on a certain day.
"The kids are working really hard and trying to prepare the 'A' team for competition."
Mount Greylock goes to Easthampton on Wednesday.
