WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- When the Mount Greylock boys basketball team proved it had to be taken seriously, Monument Mountain did some serious damage.
Dion Brown scored nine points in a 21-2 run to close the third quarter and send the Spartans on to a 62-37 win.
The run started after Mount Greylock’s Pablo Santos converted a Zeke Locklear feed in the post to cap a 9-4 spurt for the Mounties to open the second half that trimmed a 10-point deficit down to five.
Noel Powell (game-high 18) hit from the key on Monument Mountain’s next possession, and the Spartans were off to the races.
Monument Mountain scored the next 12 -- nine on transition lay-ups, including a conventional three-point play when Brown was fouled going to the hole with 1 minute, 58 seconds left in the quarter.
Despite having a 24-14 lead at half-time, the Spartans were anything but satisfied.
“The first half was atrocious for us,” Powell said. “We weren’t happy at all. I don’t know what the deal was, whether it was fatigue or the wrong mentality, thinking we’d come out and get an easy ‘W.’ We came out in the second half a little sloppy, but once we got into our rhythm, it was really good.
“That’s been our game-plan and strategy the entire season: just run, run, run.”
Powell said it’s possible that the absence of injured Mount Greylock guard Toby Foehl (15 points per game) factored into Monument Mountain’s “wrong mentality.”
“We actually … didn’t know they’d be missing Foehl when we came up here,” Powell said. “What happened was we allowed that to shift our mentality, thinking it would be an easy lock for us tonight, which it wasn’t. And we can’t let that happen again.
“This was sort of a wake-up call that it doesn’t matter who is out on the court, who the team is, what there rank is … You’re up against five guys who want the same result as you, and only one person will get it. Luckily, we got over ourselves and played Monument basketball.”
Even without its leading scorer, Mount Greylock (4-7) led most of the first quarter. Freshman Derek Paris (team-high 13) stepped up and scored five first-quarter points, and Zeke Locklear added four of his 10 in the opening eight minutes.
Pablo Santos Goldfarb’s 3-pointer gave the Mounties a 10-7 lead with 1:05 left in the quarter, but Monument Mountain closed with a Powell bucket in the post and a 3-pointer from Ty Higgins (10 points) to lead, 12-10.
The Spartans never relinquished the lead, closing the first half on an 8-0 run to lead by 10 in the locker room.
Monument Mountain’s 25-11 third quarter put the game out reach.
Mount Greylock coach Bob Thistle said the key stretch was a combination of missed Mounties shots and the Spartans’ prowess running the floor.
“It’s as simple as not making shots,” Thistle said. “I thought we were organized offensively, maybe our most organized game in terms of running stuff and getting looks. Again, no excuses, young guys, shots not going, and that leads to transition. And they killed us in transition.
“We talked about transition defense. We banged a couple of timeouts to try to stop the bleeding. But they’re a good transition team. … If we make a couple of shots, they’ve got to take the ball out of bounds, and it’s a different ballgame.
“We’ll keep working at it with our young team. We’re disappointed but not discouraged. We’ve got a lot of basketball left.”
The Mounties play two games against Berkshire County North Division foes next week: Monday at Taconic and Wednesday at home against Wahconah before playing five of its last seven in the South, including a return trip to Monument Mountain on Feb. 1.
The Spartans (10-1) take a four-game winning streak into Friday’s home game against Wahconah.
