NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The McCann Tech boys basketball game Friday took care of business at home against Hampden Charter, 63-29.
It wasn’t the best of starts for the Hornets (4-2) as they struggled to find their feet in the first quarter. It was a back and forth affair early on and it wasn’t till late in the quarter when McCann finally started to get things going.
Jacob Howland, who led all scorers with 17 points, knocked down two 3-pointers in the quarter to help give his team a 17-13 lead.
Walter Mazda chipped in with 10 of his own and Zach Howland added nine.
In the second quarter, McCann really stepped it up on both sides of the ball with a quick 7-0 run. They worked the full court press and were able to get into the passing lanes making things easier on offense.
“I was a little disappointed in the first quarter, they were beating us to every loose ball,” McCann Tech coach Chris Bullet said. “We talked about it and our guys got a lot more hungry in the second quarter. If we can score off our defense we can become a dangerous team.”
That’s exactly what they did holding Hampden Charter to only four points in the quarter and breaking this one open. They went into the break with a 36-17 lead and really looked like the team that handled Hampden Charter on the road a few weeks ago.
The third quarter was much of the same thing with McCann just out working Hampden Charter getting to all those loose balls they weren’t getting to in the first quarter. Howland really took the initiative and started attacking the basket for easy looks which was a nice change of pace from his knockdown shooting outside the three point line.
“I want Jacob to play at three different levels, when he’s hitting his 3, it opens everything else up. It started opening things up for others, getting them easy baskets,” Bullet said. “We came out with good confidence in the third quarter and it spread throughout the team.”
After allowing 13 points in the first quarter McCann was able to hold Hampden Charter to just nine points in the second and third quarter combined. The type of defense and hard work any coach would be happy with. After that McCann was able to get some bench players in for good minutes to close the game off for good.
“I was happy to get the other guys minutes because we have a lot of guys that are very coachable so it’s nice to get them in the game and see them get rewarded with baskets,” Bullet said.
McCann Tech (4-2) goes to Ludlow on Monday.
