Mount Everett Boys Top Lee in SoCo Tourney Consolation Game
LENOX, Mass. -- Look out Berkshire County basketball fans. There is another Carpenter on the rise in Sheffield.
Eighth-grader Jack Carpenter hit two big second-quarter 3-pointers and scored 11 points on Friday to help the Mount Everett boys basketball team to a 43-33 win over Lee in the consolation game of the South County Tournament.
"He's got ice in his veins," Mount Everett coach Jowe Warren said of Carpenter, who is off to a strong start following his big sister, a star for the Eagles' girls team. "I've been coaching him in seventh- and eighth-grade, so it's easy for me to bring him up and trust him, especially late in games, to make good decisions with the ball.
"If he's open, he's probably going to make a shot. If he misses a couple, I tell him, 'Hey, if you're open again, take that shot again.' I even called a couple of out of bounds plays for him to try to get the ball to him. Because if he's open and he has a good look, he'll hit the shot. It's nice that we can trust him out there. The guys are coming together and realizing, 'Hey, anyone who's out there makes us better.' "
Cavan Brady led the Eagles (2-5) with 15 points and seven rebounds. Carpenter finished with 11 points, and Christian Behre played a strong defensive game with eight rebounds, four blocks and a couple of steals.
Defense was the name of the game in the first quarter of the Friday matinee, rescheduled from Thursday night due to snow. Both teams struggled to find the mark in the period, which ended with the game tied, 3-3.
But on Mount Everett's first possession of the second quarter, Cassius Conaway set up Carpenter for a triple on the left wing to give the Eagles a 6-3 lead. A couple minutes later, Brady found Carpenter for a 3 to make it 11-6, and Mount Everett never looked back.
The Eagles led by six at half-time and maintained that edge most of the way in the third quarter.
Lee (1-4) used a 5-0 spurt midway through the fourth to cut its deficit to four, 33-29, when Ben Harding sank a pair of free throws.
But Behre stopped the run with a basket in the post, and the Eagles hit eight of 11 free thows down the stretch to put the game away.
"A two possession game after you had built it up to double digits, you could easily fold and give up and let them take the lead and come out of here with a loss today," Warren said. "Instead, the guys came together, they stayed focused. We knew what we had to do to get the win. It was just regrouping, calm everyone down a little bit, and just go out and get the job done."
Hunter Roosa led Lee with eight points and nine rebounds. Patrick Finnegan grabbed 10 boards, and Julian Nejaime scored 11.
Lee goes to Hoosac Valley on Tuesday. Mount Everett hosts Duggan on Thursday.