WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. - The Mount Greylock boys basketball team Thursday eliminated an 11-point, fourth-quarter deficit to beat Pittsfield, 63-62, at home.
Pittsfield looked like it was going to start the new year with an emphatic win, but Derek Paris had other plans for Mount Greylock (3-2). Paris had 27 points including a game-winner with 17 second left on the clock. It was a fast paced game with both teams relying on the three ball early and often. Pittsfield hit four 3-pointers in the first quarter to help give itself an 18-14 lead. Two of those 3s came from Sincere Moorer, who had 26 points on the night.
With the athleticism of Pittsfield, Mount Greylock was forced to sit in a zone, leaving open opportunities for the Generals. The ball was moving quick and when shots weren’t falling, Pittsfield was able to get second chances off of offensive boards. Mount Greylock was able to hang around in the first quarter and was able to match the intensity in the second quarter thanks to a couple 3-pointers from Toby Foehl (16 points). Just before the half, Mitchell Jezouit scored a basket and then followed it up with a nice transition assist to Mac Waynick to bring the Mounties within one point. The half finished 37-33 Pittsfield.
The third quarter half is when it looked like Pittsfield was going to run away with this game. The 3-point shooting was once again the reason, as the Generals connected on five 3s in the quarter and pushed the largest lead of the game to 12 points. Nine of La’Quan Browns 12 points came in the third alone and helped them take an 11-point lead into the fourth.
Instead of giving up, Mount Greylock was able to whether the storm and started to play Mounties’ basketball, tightening things up on the defensive end helping them get things going on the offensive end. Mount Greylock went on an 8-0 run that was started by a Derek Paris and-one and finished off with a nice reverse layup from Toby Foehl. This brought Mount Greylock within five points with less than six minutes to go.
“We’ve been in every game. Whatever we lack in size or an extra shooter we are making it up with effort every night for four quarters,” Mount Greylock coach Bob Thistle said. "As a coach if you get guys that play for four quarters good things will happen. You’re going to have good and bad shooting nights, but just like in life, it’s not over till it’s over and they played till the end and I’m so proud of them.”
Play till the end is exactly what they did as they continued to chip away at the deficit. Once again it was
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Paris who knocked down a shot to tie the game at 60 a piece, before Liam Brady converted a free throw to give Mount Greylock its first lead of the game with less than two minutes to go. Pittsfield was able to answer right back, but then Paris took over again, knocking down the game winner from the foul line. Pittsfield had a couple chances on the other end of the floor but the defense of Mount Greylock held up and they were able to complete the comeback.
“We’re finding out who we are” Thistle said. “We are five games in and could be 0-5 or 5-0, We’ve lost the first two games by a combined 3 or 4 points and winning nail-biters down the stretch. So we are finding out who are second scorer is and third scorer is, we have different guys stepping up each night. Defensively we are throwing different things at people, we are not going to outsize anyone or out jump anyone but we are going to work together and I think that is what you saw in the fourth quarter.”
Mount Greylock will look to feed off of this momentum Monday on the road at Drury. Pittsfield will try to forget about this one as they play Monument Mountain Saturday.
