NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – Two weeks after taking a six-point loss at Hopkins Academy, the Drury boys basketball team Wednesday blew the Hawks off the floor with a 66-45 win.
The difference: location, location, location
“We really brought the energy coming here,” Drury’s Ben Moulton said. “We had our fans. This one was Senior Night, which means a little bit more to us. But we all knew coming in here that we wanted revenge for what happened at their place.”
Moulton scored a game-high 21 points, and his fellow senior, Tim Brazeau, finished with 13 points and 13 rebounds as Drury finished its regular season with a record of 14-4 and secured the Hampshire South league title.
Louis Guillotte scored 18 points and pulled down 11 rebounds.
Like Moulton, Drury coach Jack Racette said the atmosphere in Bucky Bullettt Gymnasium was part of the
reason for the 27-point swing between meetings between the two teams.
“I think being in our own gym, the atmosphere was a little different,” Racette said. “We got in foul trouble down there, and it affected us. [Hopkins] played sky high. And anybody who plays us is trying to play their best game. We’re two-time Western Mass champs, and when we walk in the gym, everyone wants to knock off the champs.
“Going on the road is the toughest thing to do in high school basketball. We got down there and fell behind early and got into foul trouble and couldn’t get going. And we got it to three at one point down there. They’re a good team.They’ll make some noise.”
Hopkins, which fell to 13-4, got 16 points from Andrew Ciaglo but saw a six-game winning streak come to an end.
Drury pulled away midway through the second quarter.
After a Ciaglo 3-pointer got the Hawks within three at 19-16, Drury scored the next 12 points to end the half.
Brazeau got things started when he converted a Guillotte assist in the post and got to the line for a conventional three-point play.
He scored again in the post in the run, which also saw Amont David knock down a 3-pointer and Moulton drive the right wing with 4 seconds on the clock to give the Blue Devils a 31-16 lead.
Drury went to the locker room with a double digit lead built on defense and rebounding.
“Our inside presence, with Brazeau, and I really like to get Moulton on the post … when he works the post
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with Brazeau and Guillotte, they take a lot of people with them down in the box,” Racette said.
“We’ll see a lot of zone [in the post-season]. Most teams will play zone against us. The real, real good teams might be able to match up with our size. But, for the most part, if they play man, we’re going to get the ball where we want it.”
Hopkins got the deficit down to 10 at the start of the second half, but Drury used a 13-5 run that ended with a Guillotte 3-pointer to lead by 18 going to the fourth. When the lead got up in the 20s with a few minutes left, Racette had the chance to bring each of his seniors off the court individually to the delight of the large crowd.
Each of those seniors provided a contribution in the regular season-ending win.
Logan Davis passed out four assists and grabbed seven rebounds. Anthony Pettengill had a couple of assists. Zach Davignon finished with seven boards.
Senior Night is always a time for a little bit of nostalgia, and this one was no different.
“It’s great,” Moulton said. “Time flies. I remember my freshman year watching the seniors, thinking I had all the time left. I love it, seeing everyone here, because we haven’t had fans [due to COVID-19].
“Having the place packed was awesome.”
Racette, meanwhile, was nostalgic for other reasons.
“They changed our league, and I’ve been open about it, I don’t like the league we’re in,” he said. “The competition is not the problem. It’s the long bus rides and and the loss of the rivalries of the Hoosacs, who we only played once, and the Wahconah’s who came up to our place and beat us. As a coach, I want to go back to Wahconah and see if we can avenge that loss.
“It’s not that I don’t like the teams we play. I don’t like the scenario that we lost everything we had here in Berkshire County. Because we’ve represented at the Cage in Western Massachusetts Championships –not Drury but Berkshire County – for a lot of years. It kind of took away all our rivalries. Usually, for us, to win the Berkshire County League is a big deal for us, because we’re in with Taconic, Pittsfield, Wahconah, Hoosac. When you win that, you’ve earned it.
“Three years ago, we won the [Berkshire] North, and that was one of the championships I’m most proud of. Western Mass was nice, everyone sees you. But when you won that [Berkshire North] league, you knew you’d won a league.”
Drury learns Saturday who its first opponent will be in next week’s Western Mass regional tournament.
