WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- The Unified sports movement got some new blood this fall when
Pittsfield High joined the party.
And the well established Mount Greylock squad used a little new blood Wednesday in a 48-42 win over rival Wahconah.
Josue Rubio came off the bench to score six points to help the Mounties earn their first win in a few tries against Wahconah.
Aidan Barnes scored 22 and Devika Sharma added 14 in the win.
“Josue Rubio has been a great addition to the team this year,” Mount Greylock coach Liza Barrett said. “The team loves him. He loves basketball, and he just takes it right in there. And he has a great shot, great shot.
“We’ve loved having him on the team this year.”
Liam Wheeler scored a game-high 24 points and Sam Iovino added 14 for Wahconah, which got four points from Cam Catelotti and strong passing from Hayden Robb.
It was a tie game at half-time after Sharma dropped in a buzzer-beater for Mount Greylock to make it 26-26.
The Mounties took control with a 10-0 run in the third quarter.
Right after Wheeler scored four straight to give the visitors a 30-28 lead, Sharma scored to ignite the decisive run.
Barnes scored to give Mount Greylock a 32-30 lead, and Lincoln Simpson (eight points) grabbed a defensive rebound at one end and scored from the baseline at the other end to push that margin to four points.
Barnes and Rubio each scored before Iovino was able to break the Mounties’ momentum with a buzzer-beater that sent Wahconah to the fourth quarter trailing, 38-32.
The teams traded baskets in a back-and-forth fourth quarter that saw Barnes score six points to help maintain Mount Greylock’s lead.
The teams hope to get together at least one more time this fall, and the Mounties have a Senior Night game on the schedule against Pittsfield next month before the season-ending Western Mass Jamboree, Barrett said.
“We’re just excited to be back playing,” she said. “We haven’t played as many games this year, but we love practice, too. We call it the Unified Family … and we just have a great time at practice. We’ve been working on the three-man weave for a long time, and we used that in warm-ups tonight.
“I’m just really proud of them. They worked together. We haven’t beaten Wahconah in a while, and they wanted it tonight. You saw how they stepped up on defense.”
