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TURNERS FALLS, Mass. – The Mount Everett boys basketball team Friday used a balanced scoring attack to build a big lead and held off a furious comeback effort by McCann Tech to take a 51-42 win in the championship game of the Eagles Holiday Classic at Franklin Tech.
Sean Warren hit four 3-pointers to lead the Eagles with 16 points. Matt Lowe and Michael Ullrich each finished in double figures with 13 and 12, respectively, and Jordi Peck added eight as the Eagles improved to 2-0.
“That’s what we need,” Mount Everett coach Jowe Warren said. “As much as Ullrich can lead us in the games, we need the help of other guys to step up.
“It was nice to see Jordi and Jason Peck playing on both sides of the ball. Jordi got some big buckets for us. Jason was able to get the steal last night and seal that win for us. And then our two sophomores, they’ve been stepping up unbelievably. Matt [Lowe] got a little time last year. Sean not as much. But they’re shooting with confidence and playing well.
“Matt is doing a good job taking care of the ball for us and being a leader out there, and Sean’s confidence is growing each game.”
Neither team could get its offense untracked in the first half of the second game in two nights.
The big bright spot offensively in the first 16 minutes was McCann Tech’s Colby Marko, who scored 10 of his 17 before intermission.
He hit in the post midway through the second quarter to give McCann Tech a 13-10 lead that ended up being its last margin of the night.
Mount Everett closed the first half on an 8-2 run to take a three-point lead into half.
Ullrich got things started with a free throw, and Warren ended the run with his first 3-pointer to make it 18-15.
Mount Everett then started the second half with a 19-4 run to stretch its lead to 18-points.
Warren connected three times from behind the arc in the first 2 minutes, 20 seconds of the third quarter. Ullrich scored the last six points for Mount Everett during its run, closing it with a bucket to make it 37-19 with about two minutes left in the period.
A big reason the Eagles were able to build the lead was that they were able to keep McCann Tech’s Jacob Howland under wraps.
The junior sharp-shooter, who had 19 in Thursday’s season-opener, was scoreless until the final minute of the third quarter on Friday night.
That changed in a hurry, as Howland hit three 3-pointers in about a minute – the third coming 20 seconds into the fourth quarter to get the margin down to seven points at 37-30. Four minutes later, Howland hit his fourth triple to make it 37-35 with 3:30 left to play.
“I think with him, the most you can hope to do is keep him down for a little bit,” Jowe Warren said of Howland. “He’s a great shooter, and once he makes one, that’s it. He’s gonna keep on hitting them. So I liked the way we played him in the first half and the beginning of the second half. Then he heated up a little bit.
“But we kept our composure. They made a good run. They battled. That’s a tough team. Their big guy down low [Marko], he’s tough. He battles. I give them a lot of credit for how hard they fought tonight.”
Lowe stopped the bleeding for Mount Everett with a 3-pointer to make it a five-point margin. Jack Dolan answered with a 3 at the other end for the Hornets, but Mount Everett scored five straight to push its lead to 45-38 with just less than two minutes to play, and the Hornets never got closer than six the rest of the way.
McCann Tech coach Chris Bullett was not happy with the way his team competed in the first half after starting the year with a win over host Franklin Tech on Thursday.
“The fourth quarter, I was proud of what we did,” Bullett said. “That’s the way we want to play. We didn’t give up. I’m proud of that.
“But we can’t put ourselves in that hole. Teams like that are too good. An organized basketball team like Mount Everett, well coached, you can’t put yourself in a hole like that. It’s too hard to get out of.”
Howland was named to the all-tournament team after Friday’s game. He was joined by Mount Everett’s Sean Warren and Ullrich, who was named the tournament’s MVP.
The Eagles, who make the long trip to Turners Falls at the start of every season, won the tournament for the first time since 2014.
McCann Tech and Mount Everett will meet two more times this season – on Jan. 11 in North Adams and again Feb. 7 in Sheffield.
The Hornets next game is Monday at home against Pioneer Valley Christian. Mount Everett also is home on Monday against the Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School.
