NORTH ADAMS, Mass. -- The McCann Tech boys basketball team opened up its season Thursday evening in a 77-27 home win against Gateway.

 

The Hornets had a late start this season due to their football team making the State Vocational Finals, causing them to lose their first week of practice.

 

McCann coach Mike Nykorchuck said he was a little worried going into tonight’s game, due to that missed practice and starting the season off quickly with a few scrimmages.

 

“We really weren’t executing,” Nykorchuck said about his preseason play. “So the last few days of practice we spent time executing our plays and the kids really did a good job with that tonight.”

 

McCann got a quick lead on Gateway right from the first quarter. It was playing a zone defense, which was causing Gateway to turn the ball over giving McCann those opportunities to push the ball up the court fast. 

 

“In the first half our defense triggered our offense,” Nykorchuck said. “When our defense creates turnovers and we’re running, that’s when we’re at our best, we like to run, our style is up tempo and running.”

 

McCann held a 44-13 lead at the end of the first half.

 

In the second half McCann switched to a man-to-man defense, which still worked for the Hornets but didn’t create as much turnovers like the first half. 

 

“We talked about it at half, when you’re in close games, you have to be able to play good half court man-to-man defense,” Nykorchuck said. “We’re going to play games where we’re behind so even though our trapping and zone defense is our style of play, you have to be able to play man-to-man.”

 

The Hornets saw playing time from all 12 players Thursday evening. Each of them contributed offensively on the scoreboard and defensively in the rebound category.

 

“I was very impressed with our rebounding tonight,” Nykorchuck said. “Last year, we didn’t have a good rebounding team.”

 

“Cody O’Neil came out for the team this year and he’s a monster on the boards, Dante Cellana, and Jacob Ostribiaski did a lot of good things for us.”

 

The McCann offense is run by junior point guard Collin Racette, who Thursday really led the team to their first win. 

 

“He’s the general out there,” Nykorchuck said. “He really called the plays and made the guys run the plays the right way and he hits the open guys.”

 

For McCann, senior Shane Fuller finished with a game high of 22 points, Vincent Rahmer finished with 14, and Racette had 11.

 

McCann 1-0, will travel to Pathfinder Monday evening for a 7 p.m. start.