DALTON, Mass. – There was little doubt that Wahconah’s Brody Calvert would score his 1,000th career point early in Monday’s game against Drury.
But even after a 20-4 first quarter for Wahconah, the outcome of the game was a little in doubt midway through the fourth.
That is when the hosts went on a 13-1 run to run away with an 82-58 win.
“We, obviously, had the big run early, but we knew they were going to make a run,” Wahconah coach Dustin Belcher said of the Blue Devils. “They’re a well-coached, disciplined ballclub. I thought we did a good job of weathering the storm and weathering the foul trouble we were in. We were in serious foul trouble there.
“We got through that, and we hit some big shots tonight. Different guys in different moments. That was great to see. And, hopefully, we can build off that confidence. We’ve got a big game with Monument on Friday night.”
Drury’s Louis Guillotte (22 points, seven rebounds) put back an offensive rebound with 4 minutes, 58 seconds left in the fourth quarter to trim the Blue Devils’ deficit to 69-57.
But Calvert answered by getting to the line in transition and hitting both his free throws to start the closeout run, which saw Jesse Chapman score seven of his 10 points.
“We knew we couldn’t hit their shots, but we hit some big-time shots,” Calvert said. “Lucas Pickard and Jesse Chapman hit, and Sam McLaughlin hit a big 3 to stop a run and get us back some momentum.”
Five Wahconah players finished in double figures.
In addition to Calvert’s game-high 23, Pat McLaughlin scored 16 and Pickard had 15. Sam McLaughlin (13) and Chapman (10) helped round out the scoring.
Of course, a lot of people were in the gym to see Calvert, who set the school’s all-time scoring record in soccer in the fall, came into Monday’s game needing three points to join a short list of Wahconah greats who have scored 1,000 points on the basketball court.
On Wahconah’s second possession, he scored in transition off a Drury turnover to get to 999 for his career.
Just 1 minute, 26 seconds into the game, he took a feed from Brayden Astore and hit a pull-up jumper from the right wing to go over the 1,000-point mark and touch off a brief celebration.
“It took the pressure off after I got it out of the way early,” Calvert said.
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“I knew I was only three points away, so a 3 would have been cool. But a big part of my game is getting to the rim, lay-ups, so that’s how I thought I was going to get it.”
The milestone basket turned out to be Calvert’s last of the first quarter, but he contributed in other ways.
After Drury got on the board to trim Wahconah’s lead to 11-4, Calvert assisted on a Pickard bucket that ignited a 9-0 spurt to the end of the first quarter. Sam McLaughlin capped that run with the first of his three 3-pointers.
Wahconah stretched its lead slightly in the second, taking a 43-23 advantage into the locker room after Pat McLaughlin scored in transition at the end of the half.
But as Belcher told his team at half-time, Drury (5-5) did not go away easily.
Midway through the third quarter, Sam Moorman (nine points) scored on back-to-back trips for Drury to get the margin down to 13 points: a bucket assisted by Amont David (14 points) in transition and a putback and and-one to make it 5-37 with 3:51 left in the third.
Calvert responded with a three-point play at the other end off a drive on the baseline. But Drury hung in, getting within 12 points for the first time in a while when Guillotte put back a rebound with 2:10 left in the third.
That turned out to be the barrier Drury could not crack. Despite getting within 12 points two more times in the fourth, Wahconah managed to hold the Blue Devils at arm’s length and keep the margin in double figures the rest of the way.
Drury will look to snap a four-game win streak on Thursday when it visits Lee.
Wahconah (7-2) is off until it hosts the unbeaten Spartans on Friday.
