NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Drury boys basketball team took down Pioneer Charter School of Science, 62-73, in the preliminary round of the Massachusetts Division 5 State Tournament, Wednesday night. 

 

It was a hangover start to the game for Drury. The recently crowned Western Massachusetts Champions fell behind 7-0 to start the game.

 

After back-to-back turnovers on the first couple possessions, Drury head coach Jack Racette called a timeout to refocus the group and get them playing to the standard they are accustomed to. Louis Guilotte went on to score the game's next eight points, including a nice and-one finish to get the team going.

 

Guillote finished the quarter with nine points and went on to score 19 in the game. Senior Amont David matched that total with 19 points of his own and Dante Dillard chipped in with eight.

 

“We were sluggish, I knew we were going to have that hangover, we just won the Western Mass title, and our guys were tired and sore, but I didn’t think we would come out this sluggish, we were sleepwalking.” Racette said. “Having Louis, a real scorer, who scored eight of our first eight points, helps. I called a timeout to get into them a little bit and pick up our defense.” 

 

Drury found most of its success on the defensive end, trapping the ball through their zone defense giving the visitors lots of trouble. It continued to control the first quarter and took that momentum into the second quarter where the offense continued to flow. David had eight in the quarter, most of which came from around the rim and on offensive rebounds, to help pick up the slack. After a buzzer beater from half court for Pioneer Charter School of Science, Drury still had some work to do, only leading by 10 at the break. 

 

In the second half Drury asserted its dominance once again on the defense end, holding the visitors to just two points. Louis Guilotte added seven more points in the quarter despite Pioneer Charter's attempt to box and one him and keep him out of the paint. The Blue Devils opened that 10-point lead to 22 by the end of the quarter putting this game out of reach. 

 

It was a collective effort from Drury tonight which is something we started seeing late in that Western Mass run. 

 

“Amont has been our diamond in the rough, when he plays good, we are usually in games.” Drury coach Jack Racette added. “Louis is going to get his 20, but we need scoring from other people, Myles had 11 in the championship game, Amont had 15, so if we don’t get multiple guys scoring as we go on, we’ll be in trouble.”

 

Photos from this game here.