Taconic Boys Close with Win at Lenox
LENOX, Mass. -- The Lenox and Taconic boys basketball teams each accomplished something in Saturday’s season finale.
It just may have been a little something different for each.
For Taconic, it was a chance to finish the year on a six-game winning streak and get some valuable experience for some younger players in a 63-41 win.
For Lenox, it was a chance to play.
The Millionaires concluded perhaps the shortest season anyone would want to imagine, playing their fourth game in eight days since opening a week ago with a win over Lee.
The only possible complaint in the Lenox camp was that things ended far too soon.
“Fortunately, we had a solid group of seniors and just a great group of guys,” Millionaires coach Brian Cogswell said. “Just having the opportunity to be able to play together was big, especially for our seniors.
“They’re the ones who really missed out on being able to play a full year. As a couple of these guys said, it’s just nice to be able to see each other. So having the opportunity to play with each other, too, was great.”
Sean Harrigan led Taconic with 14 points and 13 rebounds. Maimoudou Bamba also finished in double figures in the win with 10 points.
Lenox got 10 points apiece from Michael Ward and Averin Paradise.
It was a tight game in the first quarter, and Paradise’ post bucket drew Lenox to within four at 15-11 to end the period.
But Taconic started to pull away in the second, opening with an 8-2 run that included a pair of buckets by Bamba and ended when Harrigan set up Devan Solomon in transition to make it 23-13.
It was a 12-point margin at half-time, but Taconic started the third quarter on a 9-2 run that ended in a Harrigan triple to give his team a 19-point lead.
That allowed Taconic coach Bill Heaphy to work a lot of his younger players, including some junior varsity call-ups, into the rotation and give them valuable playing experience against a varsity opponent.
“That’s what we were hoping for,” Heaphy said. “So it worked out.
“The worry, of course, was starting slow after last night’s game [a win against Pittsfield]. But we got going and then were able to maintain a little bit of a lead and get those guys in. I thought they were meaningful minutes. They played a lot -- most of the fourth quarter and part of the third -- and I thought they handled themselves well.”
Christian Maturevich scored eight points, and Nunu Brown added five.
Taconic ended the season 6-2 after a slow start against Hoosac Valley and Wahconah, which each had a month of playing time heading into their games on March 8 and 10, respectively.
Lenox ended the year 2-2, a .500 record that normally would put a team in the sectional tournament … not that there was anything normal about this winter.
Cosgrove said he tried to give his team as regular an experience as he could.
“We ran everything the way we would normally run things,” he said. “It wasn’t a ‘look toward the future’ type of thing. We played it like regular games, like we normally would.
“Our seniors were the ones stepping up, and our seniors were the ones playing well. So that’s kind of where we went.”