CHESHIRE, Mass. – Frank Field was happy to add his name to the banner listing Hoosac Valley High School’s 1,000-point scorers on the basketball court on Monday night.
But, truth be told, he spends more time thinking about a different banner.
“I didn’t really picture it happening in any way,” Field said of the moment he reached the milestone. “I just wanted to get it over with so we can focus on the main goal.
“Western Mass is the goal. These person accolades are cool, they’re fun. But we have one goal in mind, and that’s winning the championship.”
To get there, of course, a team has to win in the regular season, too. And Hoosac Valley had no problem doing that on Monday, blowing out a short-handed Easthampton team, 88-48, to bounce back from last Wednesday’s loss to Monument Mountain and improve to 5-1 this winter.
First Field accomplished his mission by scoring the first five points of the game to reach 1,000 for his career.
First, he opened the scoring with a lay-up in transition.
Then, after a couple of empty possessions for the Hurricanes, Field put his name on the school’s honor roll.
The play started with a drive to the basket from the right wing by Kadan Tatro. His shot came off the rim to Field, who dribbled out of traffic beyond the 3-point arc, turned and calmly sank the shot to record 1,000 for his career.
“I’m happy for him, obviously,” Hoosac Valley coach Bill Robinson said. “He’s a great kid. And unselfish, very unselfish. So in order to get that, he’s had a nice career here.”
Field became the eighth boy at Hoosac Valley to reach the 1,000-point plateau and the second member of the Field family to do so. On Monday night, he joined his sister, Fallon, who graduated in 2017 with 1,303 points.
Frank has at least 14 games left to chase down his big sister. He stands at 1,013 after finishing with 18 points in Monday’s win.
Joey McGovern led the Hurricanes with 28 points, and Trevor Moynihan and Adan Wicks scored 14 and 11, respectively, as Hoosac Valley scored its season high as a team.
Easthampton, which lost to the ‘Canes by just five points the first time the teams played in December, rallied to briefly take a lead after a brief moment to celebrate Field’s milestone.
But that margin dissipated when Field knocked down his second triple of the first quarter to make it 8-8 with 3:15 left in the period.
McGovern’s first 3 of the game gave Hoosac Valley the lead for good, and the Hurricanes closed the quarter on a 16-3 run to take a 21-11 lead.
They then outscored the Eagles, 24-6, in the second quarter to effectively put the game away, taking a 45-17 lead into the locker room.
McGovern and Moynihan each scored eight points in the second quarter to lead the way.
In the third quarter, McGovern connected three times from behind the arc and scored 13 points as Hoosac Valley stretched its margin to 46 points before turning the game over to its bench.
Besides winning the turnover battle, 17-7, in the first half, and making a combined 10 3-pointers, the biggest difference for the Hurricanes came on the glass, where they outrebounded Easthampton, 43-26, a margin that was even wider going to the fourth quarter.
“They’re size,” Robinson said of the Eagles, who are without a big who gave the Hurricanes trouble the first time around. “They’re small. I mean, I thought we were small at points, but they’re really small.”
Other than allowing Easthampton to cut into the margin a little in the last eight minutes, Robinson was happy with his team’s performance.
“Up to that point, I liked the effort out of all the kids,” he said. “They pretty much were hustling around and hitting the glass. And we even got a charge or two out there.”
Hoosac Valley goes to Springfield College on Thursday afternoon to face Pioneer Valley at the Hoophall Classic.
