Walker, Howland Are This Week's Athletes of the Week
While the county has plenty of teams vying for a top seed in their respective state basketball tournaments, don't sleep on the teams making a mid-season push for the playoffs.
And this week's iBerkshires.com/Southwestern Vermont Health Care Athletes of the Week are big reasons why their squads are having big success as January comes to a close.
The McCann Tech boys basketball team started the season 0-4 but is 4-2 in its last six games to improve to 5-7.
The Hornets still are ranked 54th in the latest MIAA in-season power rankings for Division 5, but a .500 record would get McCann Tech into the dance.
Zach Howland leads the Hornets with just fewer than 13 points per game, and he was the leading scorer in two wins last week.
First, he scored a game-high 14 in a home win over a Lee squad that currently is ranked No. 6 in D5.
Then, Howland scored 17 in a road win at Turners Falls.
McCann Tech hit a snag on Friday night when it fell to Mount Everett in overtime in the Hornets Nest.
But another busy week this week will give Howland and his team a chance to make up some ground.
Things get started on Tuesday with a road trip to play Hampden Charter and avenge a nine-point loss when the teams met in the Hornets' second game of the year. McCann Tech then comes home to play Gateway on Wednesday and Duggan Academy on Friday.
Jaelynn Walker and the Taconic girls have just one game this week, but it's a big one, when Division 5 power No. 7 Drury comes to Valentine Road on Wednesday night.
The Thunder is classified in D3, where it is ranked No. 52 after improving to 4-8 with a pair of wins last week.
Taconic's victories over Franklin Tech on Monday and Monument Mountain on Thursday gave the green and gold three wins in its last four games after starting the year 1-7.
The Thunder has some work to do to get to .500 in its last eight games (six on the regular schedule plus two in the Western Mass tournament or consolation bracket). But Walker has been a workhorse at Taconic.
She is the only player on the squad averaging double figures this winter with just more than 17 points per game.
In Thursday's Senior Night win, she scored 24 -- 23 in the second half alone.
After finishing its non-league schedule on Wednesday against the Blue Devils, Taconic has league rematches against Monson (an 11-point winner the first time) and Hampshire (a six-point winner on opening night in mid-December plus a looming home-and-home with Berkshire County and Suburban Division foe Wahconah.
The iBerkshires.com Athlete of the Week is sponsored by Southwestern Vermont Health Care.