WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. – The Mount Greylock boys basketball team Tuesday shook off the rust of a weeklong layoff, went on a 19-2 run to take control of the game and went on to a 74-60 win over Athol to clinch at least a share of the Hampshire North Division title.
Jackson Shelsy scored 17 points, Seamus Barnes had a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds, and Judge Martin pulled down 10 boards while passing out four assists as the Mounties picked up their fifth straight win.
Mount Greylock (11-5, 10-0) has a two-game lead in the loss column over second-place Athol and Smith Academy with just two games left to play in the league: at Turners Falls on Thursday and home against the Thunder next Tuesday.
Two of the Mounties’ wins are forfeits by Mohawk Trail, including a game that was to have been played last Thursday in Buckland.
Thanks to that forfeit, Mount Greylock had a seven-day layoff going into Tuesday night.
The Bears (9-5, 6-2) took advantage early, jumping out to a 7-0 lead in the first three minutes.
“Give them credit,” Mount Greylock coach Bob Thistle said of Athol. “They played hard, coming a long way. They threw a little junk defense at us, which we do a lot to other teams. I don’t think we were really ready for it, honestly. So I think the kids on the fly made some good adjustments.
“And the big issue was we were getting out rebounded. We made some adjustments ourselves, but we worked harder on the defensive glass.”
Barnes said the big adjustments came before the ball hit the glass.
“They’re a really good rebounding team,” the senior captain said of the Bears. “They have a lot of guys who can sneak in there and get rebounds. We just did a better job finding those guys before a shot even went up – locating them and boxing them out before the shot even happens, I guess.”
After Shelsy got the Mounties on the board with an assist from Martin, Barnes put back an offensive rebound to make it a one-possession game at 7-4. Max McAlister (seven points, eight rebounds) converted a pair of free throws to get Mount Greylock within one, and Shelsy knocked down a triple to give his team the lead for good at 9-7 with three minutes left in the first quarter.
Athol’s Ben Kearney (16 points) scored to snap a 12-0 run, but Mount Greylock closed the quarter with seven straight, capped by Liam O’Keefe’s triple to make it 19-9.
The Mounties finished the game with seven 3-pointers, including three by Shelsy.
“That’s what happens when you go with junk defense,” Thistle said. “Someone is going to get open. If we don’t hit shots, they’re gonna stay in it. But they had to come out of it when we started to make shots. And it’s a credit to those guys for making them.”
Kearney hit a buzzer-beating 3 from the backcourt to end the half and send the Bears to the locker room down by single digits, 34-25.
But Mount Greylock came out of the break with its best quarter of offense all night, scoring 27 points to open a 61-38 lead going to the fourth.
Chase Doyle (13 points) went 6-for-6 at the foul line in the third after picking up his second personal foul early in the first. Shelsy scored 10 points in the third.
Athol cut into the 23-point deficit in the fourth quarter, getting within 12, but Mount Greylock stopped a 9-2 run when McAlister made both ends of a one-and-one to make it 72-58 with 1:05 on the clock.
Mount Greylock, which started the year 2-4, won on Tuesday for the ninth time in 10 outings.
“You work hard for three months to try to play a real good week of basketball,” Thistle said, referring to the Western Mass tournament set to start on Feb. 20. “And that’s what we’re going to keep doing, grinding it out until then.”
