NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – The Drury boys basketball team Monday held off city rival McCann Tech for a 64-57 win in the Western Massachusetts Class C quarter-finals.
These two rivals don’t meet often, but when they do it’s an event for the whole town. Whether you are repping the Blue of Drury or the Green of McCann this matchup always brings out the crowd and the drama.
In this installment, McCann Hornets looked for an upset, coming in as the No. 7 seed in the regional tournament, and with the way the game started it looked like that was within reach.
McCann came out with guns blazing, knocking down four 3-pointers in the first quarter as they took an early 14-1 lead over Drury.
Drury didn’t score its first basket until just less than four minutes remained in the quarter. Jorge Bond scored 11 first quarter points including an and-one to really get the home crowd into the game. Bond finished with a game-high 20 points. Teammate Sammy Moorman added 15 of his own, while Dante Dillard scored 11.
Drury trailed at the end of the first quarter, 16-21, and really started to turn things around at the beginning of the second. The double team and full court pressure started to break down McCann and Drury was able to grab their first lead of the game at 25-23. Drury seemed to settle into the game executing in the half court set giving them easy baskets at the rim.
“They shot the ball extra well, and we weren’t locked in defensively,” Drury coach Jack Racette said. “We had a good second quarter holding them to nine, but it was a tough win, they played hard.”
Drury went into the half-time break with a 31-30 lead, leaving McCann still smelling an upset.
In the second half, Drury started to get the ball inside to its big man, Sam Moorman, who on multiple occasions this season has taken things into his own hands working the low post. He had seven in the quarter, including going 5-for-8 from the free throw line where he was rewarded for his aggressive approach.
McCann wouldn’t go away as Jacob Howland knocked down some timely threes to keep things close. Jacob
Howland finished with 17 for McCann While his brother Zach had 11. McCann Tech trailed by two going into the fourth and hoped to make one last run at the second-seeded Blue Devils in the fourth.
With just less than five minutes to go in the game, Drury went on a 7-0 run that was sparked by Moorman, who had a nice finish on one end and then a big block down the other that led to an acrobatic and one for Connor Hinkell to give Drury a 54-45 lead.
McCann answered right back with a big 3 from Jack Dolan. The Hornets later cut the deficit to one point after an Eric Rougeau 3-pointer with just 3 minutes left to go. Drury’s Myles Beauchamp fired back with a 3 of his own to give the Blue Devils a margin it never relinquished.
“We kept trying to go to Sammy, he’s only a junior so the inexperience showed a little bit,” Racette said. “Last year, we just gave the ball to Louis [Guillotte] and watched him go to work but now we have to find another guy to score. We had multiple guys including Myles who hit a big three for us, but they played hard and we knew that they were going to.”
Drury closed the game out at the free throw line and punched its ticket to Thursday’s Class C semi-final at home against third-seeded Granby.
