Drury Rallies Past Hoosac Valley in Second Half
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – Sam Moorman had a double-double, and the Drury boys basketball team used a 13-0 second half run to break open a close game and beat Hoosac Valley, 62-49, on Tuesday night.
Moorman joined four of his teammates in Senior Night ceremonies before the game.
He then dominated the first half, scoring 14 points and grabbing 10 rebounds before intermission to help the Blue Devils take a narrow, 25-23, lead into the locker room.
Moorman finished the night with 27 points and 14 rebounds to go with a couple of blocked shots.
“Going back, it’s been since seventh grade, the last time we beat [Hoosac Valley] here at Drury,” Moorman said. “And it’s been since freshman year we beat them at all. Going out here felt great. My teammates instilled confidence in me.
“And I didn’t want to lose on my Senior Night.”
Sophomore Jorge Bond chipped in with 24 points and 11 rebounds, and junior Connor Hinkell finished with seven boards and three assists.
Hinkell also was involved in a play early on that put a charge into a packed house at Bucky Bullett Gymnasium when Hoosac Valley’s Qwanell Bradley (13 points, 13 rebounds) pushed Hinkell to the floor while going for an offensive rebound.
Bradley drew a technical foul on the play. And Drury got a chance to respond to challenge posed by the Hurricanes.
“That’s basketball,” Drury coach Jack Racette said. “Kids are playing hard. I mean, you know this rivalry. It is what it is. No one is trying to hurt anybody. They were just playing hard.
“We knew what they were going to do. They’re a physical team. And we thought our physicality had to get better. We’ve got to get better physically. We got beat up by Pioneer. … That’s the name of the game as you go and start playing in the tournament. You’ve got to be physical.”
The Hurricanes and Blue Devils went blow-for-blow on the scoreboard throughout the first half.
The biggest lead for either team was four points.
First, Trevor Moynihan (team-high 15 points) dropped in an NBA range 3-pointer early in the second quarter to give Hoosac Valley a 16-12 advantage.
Drury quickly got a basket from Bond and a Moorman score in the post assisted by Bond to tie it up.
And the Blue Devils went up, 23-19, when Moorman tipped in an offensive rebound late in the half.
But the Hurricanes got back within a field goal in the final seconds of the half when Bradley put back an offensive rebound to make it 25-23.
It was 33-32, Hoosac Valley, midway through the third quarter after Bradley scored in the post.
That was the last point the Hurricanes scored for 6 minutes, 49 seconds.
In the meantime, Drury scored 13 points – the first seven at the free throw line.
Hinkell made the defensive play of the night late in the run when he ran down a Hoosac Valley player on a fast break and blocked a shot against the backboard. He then set up Moorman for a basket in the post to make it 51-35.
Hoosac Valley coach Bill Robinson said the Hurricanes’ lack of offense in the third quarter contributed to its poor defense, which in turn led to Drury getting opportunities at the free throw line.
The Blue Devils did a good job of containing Hoosac’s sharp-shooting guards, Robinson said.
“They were just playing five guys on our two guards, pretty much,” Robinson said. “They played us hard outside because they knew they had help coming on the drive. And when we got to the next level, Moorman’s a pretty big body. They had him and [Colin] Daly and Hinkell on the inside. They pressed up pretty good, so when we got inside, our diminutive guards couldn’t do much with it,
“So the idea was to kick the ball out – draw Moorman and kick the ball to the corner. We just didn’t have a guy there making shots tonight.”
Hoosac Valley was held to fewer than 50 points for the third time this season – all losses for the Hurricanes.
“That’s because Drury made that happen to us,” Robinson said. “They did a good job of having layered defense, and the layered defense stopped us from getting where we had to go.”
Racette credited another Drury senior with helping to make that happen.
“Defensively, I thought James Varellas did a great job on Moynihan,” Racette said. “I thought [Sam] Bullett did a good job on [Adan] Wicks. Those guys are scorers. We ran ‘em off the 3-point line, and we were hoping to be able to rebound it.”
Wicks finished with 13 points for Hoosac Valley – six on a pair of 3-pointers in the closing minute after Drury led by as many as 18 with fewer than three minutes remaining.
The Blue Devils finish the regular season 13-5 and wait to see who they will face in the quarter-finals of the Western Massachusetts Tournament.
Hoosac Valley (7-10) has one more regular season game left, Wednesday night at South Hadley.