McGuire Scores 33 to Lead Drury to Win in Opener
AMHERST, Mass. -- As the Hopkins Academy boys basketball team ate up nearly all of a 15-point Drury lead over the course of the second quarter on Saturday, Blue Devils coach Jack Racette had several of his starters on the bench.
And he kept them right there.
“We’ve got to find out who can play under pressure,” Racette said after a 71-57 Drury win at the Pioneer Valley Tipoff at Curry Hicks Cage. “We’re young in a lot of ways. I know we’ve got Scott [McGuire Jr.], and I know we’ve got Hunter [Sarkis].
“But we’ve got to find our young people. And leaving them out there, they’ll find out quick. I thought [junior Ben] Moulton gave us great minutes at times.”
Moulton finished with six points and two assists as Drury opened the season with a win. Freshman Louis Guilottte scored 11 and pulled down four rebounds.
The bulk of the offense came from 1,000-point scorer and senior McGuire, who was named player of the game after scoring 33 points, amassing six steals and grabbing eight rebounds.
It was McGuire who scored 16 points in the first quarter to give Drury a big early lead. And it was McGuire who drove the baseline in the last two minutes of the half to end a 12-2 Hopkins run that saw the Hawks get within one, 22-21, on a 3-pointer from Colin Earle (15 points).
Drury stormed out of the gate with steals from McGuire on Hopkins’ first three possessions. Each of the swipes resulted in a lay-up and a 6-0 lead.
After Hopkins hit a 3, Drury scored the next 12, the last two on a McGuire lay-up after Moulton made a steal out of the Drury press.
It was an 11 point margin after Guilotte scored with an assist from Keegan Vidal early in the second quarter to make it 20-9. But Hopkins took over, eventually going to the locker room down by just two, 26-24.
The Hawks got within one early in the third, but Drury seized control with a 16-2 run. McGuire had six points and two assists, and Guilotte scored four in that stretch, which ended in a 37-32 lead.
Hopkins never got closer than 13 points the rest of the way.
Overall, Racette said he was happy with his team’s performance in the opener, coming out of an abbreviated preseason that saw two first-week practices lost due to snow.
“There’s not a lot of practices under that team’s belt, and it showed a little bit,” Racette said. “But Ws are Ws, and those are the games we’ve got to win. The [Berkshire County North Division] is going to be brutal for us. Those are good wins for us.”
Drury is home on Monday to face South Division rival Lee at Bucky Bullett Gymnasium.