Lee Boys Down Rival Millionaires
LENOX, Mass. – The Lee boys basketball team wanted to make sure Friday the 13th did not feel like Groundhog Day.
After nine straight losses to its nemesis to the north, Lee was laser focused on the season opener at Lenox.
Sam Korte scored 20 points, and the Wildcats used an 11-0 run in the fourth quarter to take control in a 47-36 win over the Millionaires – Lee’s first in the series since a 57-54 win in February 2019.
“That feels amazing,” Korte said. “We’ve been thinking about it all week, since the start of the season, even before then. We’ve been talking about it.
“And it feels amazing.”
Korte finished with a double-double, grabbing 11 rebounds to go with his 20 points. Joe Abderhalden and Ben Kelly scored seven points apiece, and John Brighenti brought down 10 boards.
Lenox got 14 points apiece from Chris Lyon and Brady DiGrigoli in the head coaching debut of former Millionaire Bailey Patella.
It was not exactly a shootout, but it was just about what Lee coach J.T. Brown was expecting.
“That was a grind-it-out game,” Brown said. “That was sort of what you expect when you play Lenox in the first game of the year.”
A sure sign of things to come: it took a Mitchell Keenan 3-pointer with six seconds left in the first quarter to give one of the teams a double-digit score. Keenan’s triple sent Lee into the second quarter with an 11-8 lead.
The visitors had some trouble all night against Lenox’s pressure defense. The Millionaires forced 24 turnovers on the night.
“They played hard all day,” Brown said. “Our team, I thought, responded in a positive way. Obviously, if we could clean up the turnovers, I think that we’d be in better shape.
“But at the end of the day I’m proud of the way they battled.”
It was a one- or two-possession game the entire first half, and Lenox started the second half with a 3-pointer from DiGrigoli to tie it, 21-21.
Lee responded by scoring the next seven points, the last on a Jacob Cooper’s bucket assisted by Korte for a 28-21 advantage.
Lenox struck right back, getting within a point when Lyon drove the left wing for a basket in the closing minute of the third to make it 28-27.
A Brighenti free throw at the other end gave Lee a two-point margin headed to the fourth.
Lenox took its first lead since 8-6 when DiGrigoli scored in transition with 5 minutes, 53 seconds to play to make it 30-29.
But that lead was short-lived.
Lee scored back-to-back baskets on press breaks to quickly go up, 33-30. And it scored the next seven points – including two more transition buckets – to take a 40-30 lead with 2:01 on the clock when Brighenti hit a foul shot after being fouled on the break.
Lenox was not able to stop the run until Lyon hit a 3 from the left wing with 1:32 left to make it a seven-point game.
“I think our offense is still a work in progress,” Patella said. “We’ve been working for – the same as everyone else – but we’ve only had 10 days, and it’s a new system for them. So they’re still getting used to it.
“I have all the confidence in the world in our guys to keep stepping up and keep shooting those shots. And they will fall.”
Omari Smith put back a rebound, and Abderhalden scored in transition to give Lee its biggest lead of the night, 44-33, with about a minute on the clock.
Lee (1-0) will look to stay unbeaten next Thursday when it visits Smith Academy.
Lenox (0-1) hosts Turners Falls on Monday.
“There were definitely some nerves, some excitement,” Patella said of his first time on the bench at the helm of the boys program. “But being out there with the guys, knowing it’s my group of guys was special. My first game, officially, so it’s one I won’t forget.
“I would have loved a different outcome. But it’s the first game of the year, we’ve got a lot to improve on, and our guys will come in and keep working.”
Photos from this game to come.