Wahconah Boys Rally Past Drury in Fourth

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Wahconah boys basketball team Wednesday used a big fourth-quarter to earn a 57-54 win over Drury.

 

It wasn’t the most ideal game for Wahconah (7-1) as it struggled early on find baskets. Both teams turned the ball over early and found it hard to get easy looks at the hoop. Wahconah held an early first quarter lead but it didn’t last long.

 

The second quarter saw Drury (4-5) take the lead with good ball movement finding open looks at the rim. Scott McGuire led the way for Drury with 10 points in the quarter and 32 on the night. Louis Guilotte chipped in with 13 points and Tim Brazeau had nine.

 

Drury relied on its defense getting multiple blocked shots that it was able to turn into points on the offensive end. It wasn’t much that separated these two teams as they went into the break all even at 25.

 

One bright spot from Wahconah was its transition offense. It was able to get the ball and go before Drury could set up in their defense, and it proved to be some of Wahconah’s best offense in the first half. Kevin Huban led the way for Wahconah with 19 points. Tom O’Connor  had 17.

 

“Coming in here trying to run and get points in transition is something you need to do,” Wahconah coach Dustin Belcher said. :You know you’re going to be in for a tough battle here, they play very good defensively, but I’m proud of my guys for sticking with it.”

 

Coming out of the half it looked like the home team was going to take control of the game. Drury went on a 7-2 run to start getting the ball inside on the zone for easy layups. Later in the quarter the offensive boards for Drury were proving to be costly for Wahconah as Tim Brazeau grabbed one down and kicked it out to a wide open 3-pointer from Louis Guilottte. This gave Drury a 38-32 lead just before the fourth quarter.

 

In the fourth, Wahconah turned a switch and upped its intensity on both sides of the ball. Wahconah didn’t shoot the ball well from the free throw line, but it was able to get to the rim and get the opportunities. It scored 12 points from the line alone in the fourth quarter, the same number of made free throws Drury had all together.

 

Wahconah was able to keep Drury scoreless for over four minutes at the end of the game. After leveling the score at 48 apiece, Griffen Salvini was able to get a fast break bucket to give his team the lead. After some more free throws down the stretch, Wahconah was able to close the game out and complete the comeback.

 

“I think that is what I’m most proud of tonight.” Belcher said about not giving up. “We have a lot of work to do with the bulk of our schedule left, but the fact that we kept fighting tonight and got through some of the adversity, there was a stretch tonight where we kept turning it over but we stuck to the game plan, and executed well in the fourth quarter."

 

Wahconah is coming off an impressive win against Taconic and will keep the streak going at six games. It will take on Frontier Monday, at home.

 

Drury goes back to the drawing board as it looks to try and string some wins together and get away from the .500 record. The Blue Devils will face Pittsfield on the road, Friday.