Drury Boys Pick Up Senior Night Win
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. -- In the opening moments of the second half on Friday night, the Lee boys took their first lead of the night.
Drury senior Jeff Adams was having none of it.
He set up Louis Guillotte for a triple to give the Blue Devils a 31-30 edge and hit a 3-pointer of his own on Drury's next possession, putting the team on the way to a 25-3 run and a 70-46 win.
Adams scored 13 points and grabbed five rebounds, and classmate Cody Dewey added four points as Drury won for the fourth time in five nights.
Adams and Dewey got to finish their high school basketball careers in front of their immediate families, who took their socially distanced places in the bleachers to watch the Blue Devils finish their abbreviated season with an 8-4 record.
"It definitely was awesome, especially being Senior Night and my last game," Adams said. "I loved having my family here.
"[Playing this year] means everything to me, especially helping the younger guys get better at what they do and get ready for next season. That's what I was here for."
Drury junior Ben Moulton scored 15 points to lead all scorers, and his classmate Tim Brazeau scored 12 while pulling down 13 rebounds and blocking a couple of shots. Sophomore Guillotte finished with 11 points.
Evan Heath scored 10 points to lead Lee, which got nine apiece from Timothy Besaw and Camden Redstone.
Heath scored five points in the Wildcats' 8-2 run to end the second quarter and get within two points after Drury led by as many as 12 in the first half.
With 6 minutes, 20 seconds left in the third quarter, Besaw hit from behind the arc to give Lee a 30-28 lead.
Guilotte's three -- one of 12 by Drury on the night -- got the Blue Devils back the lead, and his conventional three-point play moments later pushed the margin to 37-30.
After Besaw hit a 3 with an assist from Heath to get Lee within four, Drury scored the next 16 points, a run that ended when Dewey fed Adams for a 3 to make it 53-33 on the first possession of the fourth quarter.
"We took a little bit more pride in our defense," Drury coach Jack Racette said of his team's performance after half-time. "We kind of got a little loose in that second quarter. We were missing assignments, and they made some shots. Sometimes, we get in that mentality that we're just going to outscore you. You can do that on certain nights, but if you're going to win championships, you've got to defend.
"They came out in the third quarter and started finding the shooters and rebounding a little better. It was a good way to end for those seniors."
Drury led by as many as 28 when Brazeau put back an offensive rebound with 3:15 to go. Lee then finished on a 6-2 run that ended with Besaw's third 3 of the second half.
"We couldn't make a shot in the second half, and we just got lazy on defense as well," Lee coach Eric Cardinal said. "Some things to build on for next year, but I was really proud of our seniors, the way they played not just tonight but for the last four years.
"Drury's a good team. They've always been a good team. They're well coached. Sometimes, the buckets just don't fall your way."
Racette was also proud of his seniors for making the most of the shortened campaign, and he is looking forward to what the younger Blue Devils can do down the road.
"We've got some guys who can score in a lot of different ways," he said. "[Guillotte and Brazeau] inside, Ben [Moulton] has been making shots, Zach [Davignon] has been making shots. We get the ball moving and stretch out defenses, we we've got guys who can beat people off the dribble with [Guillotte] and an inside presence with [Brazeau]. Teams have got to pick their poison whether they play man and deal with the big guy or play zone and hope we don't shoot well."