CHESHIRE, Mass. — The Hoosac Valley boys basketball team Friday advanced to the Final Four of the Division 5 State Tournament with a win over Hopedale, 59-48.
You could feel the energy in the crowd the minute you walked in the gym that the Hurricanes were ready to book a trip to the state semi-finals. The players and coaches got that message and came out firing on all cylinders.
Hoosac Valley jumped out to a quick 9-0 lead starting with a deep 3-pointer from Joey McGovern to get the place going wild. Frank Field joined in on the fun a couple plays later with a 3 of his own.
Field had a team-high 18 points. Adan Wicks scored 13 including 10 first half points, giving Hoosac a big boost on the offensive end. Combine that offensive with lock down defense, Hoosac was able to jump out to a 19-9 first quarter lead. At times it seemed like Hoosac had six players on the court with the way they were moving around diving on every loose ball they could find.
It continued this intensity at the beginning of the second quarter finding open spots against the Hopedale zone that caused issues all night.
“We knew we would have some space to attack in the high post and on the baseline to eventually kick out for 3s but I really wanted to get pressure on them by getting it inside. That was our initial gameplay.” Hoosac Valley coach Bill Robinson said.
The Hurricanes exploited that baseline whether it was from 3-point range or the mid range jumper. Hopedale didn’t have an answer and it helped Hoosac gain such an early lead. As the quarter went on Hopedale took an early timeout to try and regroup and get things going on the offensive end themselves.
Matt Madden finally got things going for Hopedale, and the team followed suit. He scored nine points in the quarter and Hopedale as a team hit three triples to reverse the score on Hoosac and tie it up going into the break.
This has been the first real test for the Hurricanes in this State Tournament, and the response of out the halftime was exactly what you expected from the No. 1 ranked team in the tournament. Senior Field came out of the break hungry, getting a couple key defensive stops and baskets to help spark a 10-0 run to give Hoosac some breathing room.
“I told the guys we have 16 minutes, it's a war, it’s what we expected,” Robinson said. “We had to come out and play a great 16 minutes of basketball. Frank didn’t want to go home, his leadership and communication was there. It was do or die for those seniors, Frank stepped up defensively and had some steals and it was all good.”
That 10-0 run to start the second half was the difference maker for Hoosac Valley as it never looked like they were going to give the lead up. Hopedale did its best to try and chip away at the lead but Hoosac proved to be too difficult to stop.
Hoosac Valley (21-2) has only lost two games this year, both to Berkshire County rival Monument Mountain in Division 4, and the Canes don’t look like they are slowing up any time soon.
Next week, they will try to move one step closer to a state crown when they face fifth-seeded Mahar (18-5) in the state semi-finals.
