CHESHIRE, Mass. -- Hoosac Valley senior Luc Levesque saved his best for when his team needed it the most.
Levesque put back offensive rebounds on back-to-back possessions late in the fourth quarter to give the Hurricanes the lead in a 50-45, come-from-behind win over Monument Mountain.
“Levesque did a nice job on the hustle, hustle putbacks,” Hoosac Valley coach Bill Robinson said. “He did nothing all night. He was a bum all night. We told him about it.
“But I also said, ‘You know what, you won the game for us. Your hustle came back and you did it for us.”
Friday was all about comebacks for both teams.
The Spartans answered a 13-3 run to open the game with a 17-0 run to lead by seven midway through the second quarter.
Monument held that lead through the third quarter and went up, 41-38, when Khalil Carlson (11 points, 13 rebounds) put back his own miss early in the fourth.
But Hoosac Valley scored the next 13 points, and Levesque was right in the middle of the game-winning run.
“It’s all about not giving up,” Levesque said. “It starts on the defensive end. Defense translates into offense. We hit them with a few different looks on defense, and it just worked for us. Offense came late, for sure. We struggled a little bit.”
Logan Davis started the decisive run when he drove the right wing and finished to make it 41-35. A minute later, he drove to the basket again and drew a foul; he knocked down his free throw for a conventional three-point play, and the Spartans’ lead was down to 41-38.
After Shaun Kastner pulled down one of his eight rebounds on the defensive end, Levsque put back a miss to make it a one-point game.
Hoosac Valley’s defense then caused a turnover, and Levesque again registered a putback to give the Hurricanes their first lead since 13-11, a 42-41 margin with 1 minute, 50 seconds on the clock.
“High point, get it at the highest point and beat everyone to the ball and go to work,” Levesque said. “That’s what I knew I had to do. I had to step up, and I’m just glad we got it done tonight.”
After a Monument Mountain timeout, the Spartans’ shot rimmed out and Carson Meczywor grabbed the rebound. Meczywor (14 points) was fouled and made both ends of a one-and-one to put his team up by three points.
Caleb Harrington (12 points) made it a five-point margin with 45 seconds left, and Meczywor hit four more foul shots -- 6-for-6 at the line in the last two minutes -- to put the game away.
“We let this one slip away,” Monument Mountain coach Randy Koldys said. “Give credit to Hoosac Valley, though. They clamped us down in the last quarter. We were up, 41-33, and they went on a 17-4 run to end the game. Give them credit all the way around.
“They changed up their defense, and we didn’t react to it as well as we should have. I’ll take full responsibility for that part, right there.”
Monument Mountain’s Connor Hanavan led all scorers with 16 points.
The Hurricanes (11-2) earned a 2-1 win in the season series against Monument and take a four-game winning streak into Saturday’s game against Drury.
The Spartans (8-3) are at Wahconah on Saturday.
