Taconic Boys Overcome Sluggish Start Behind Percy's 20 Points
PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- It took the Taconic boys basketball team a little while to get going on Friday night at the Boys and Girls Club.
But once it did, it put on a heck of a show for the home crowd at the Pittsfield Hoop Club Holiday Classic.
Issac Percy scored 20 points and passed out four assists, Dedric Moody hit five 3-pointers and Mohammed Sanogo threw down four dunks on his way to a 15-point night as Taconic defeated Lenox, 77-40, to win its third straight and improve to 4-3 after a busy December.
The most noticeable improvement came after the first quarter, when Taconic had to erase a late three-point deficit to scrap its way to a 17-15 lead.
Moody hit three triples in the second quarter -- two in a 12-3 run that opened a 29-18 lead when Percy set up Sanogo in the post midway through the quarter.
Taconic led, 40-27, at half-time, but that lead did not spare the team from a serious “talking to” from coach Bill Heaphy.
“We were pretty sluggish in the first half,” Heaphy said. “I talked to ‘em. I said a couple of things to ‘em. But they know.
“We recommitted to some things in the third quarter that we’ve been trying to do all year, and they did it.”
Taconic put away the game with a 22-5 second quarter.
It came out of the locker room -- actually, the far corner of the Boys and Girls Club gym -- with a 10-0 run to build an insurmountable 23-point lead.
Percy started the run with a bucket in the post and drew a foul in the process. He missed the chance for the conventional three-point play, but Robert McCown grabbed the rebound and got to the line, where he sank both his free throws for a four-point possession and an 44-27 lead.
Sanogo then scored the next six points on dunks -- two off assists from Quincy Davis and the last on a feed from Percy after Taconic’s press forced a turnover.
Heaphy said he could not recall an aerial show in the Melville Street facility like the one Sanogo put on against the Millionaires.
“We’re trying to get [Sanogo] to understand that he has to be an option, someone we can look to every time down there,” Heaphy said. “He’s starting to understand that a little bit more.”
After Percy and La’Quan Brown hit late 3s to make it 62-32 at the end of the third, the fourth quarter belonged to Taconic’s bench, which pushed the lead as high as 38 points.
Lenox, used some 3-point shooting of its own early to build a 13-10 lead six minutes into the game.
Nick Nicotra (10 points, 11 rebounds), and Shane Steinman each hit 3s in the first quarter. Jett Steinman hit a triple in the second quarter en route to a nine-point night.
The Millionaires (1-5) are at Drury next Friday.
Taconic (4-3) is off until Jan. 3 when it hosts Monument Mountain.