Wahconah's Gamberoni, Hoosac Valley's McGovern Earn Weekly Honors

This week's iBerkshires.com Athletes of the Week came up with big points in tight games as their teams gear up for the post-season.

 

On Friday night, Hoosac Valley's Joey McGovern scored 27 points and made seven of eight free throws in the fourth quarter to lead the Hurricanes to a 66-58 road win at South Hadley.

 

Less than 24 hours later, he matched his scoring total with 27 more points in a four-point win at Renaissance to help the Hurricanes pick up their 10th win of the winter and secure a spot in the Division 5 State Tournament.

 

Those two performances helped McGovern take over the team lead in scoring with 16 points per game. He also leads the Hurricanes in 3-pointers, averaging 2.7 per night.

 

Hoosac Valley has two games left before the Western Massachusetts regional tournament the week of Feb. 20. On Monday, they host Baystate Academy before finishing the regular season on Wednesday against archrival Drury in North Adams.

 

The Wahconah girls have been in the state tournament for a while, and in the latest MIAA power rankings, they were the No. 6 team in Division 4 statewide.

 

That could go up after Wahconah last week improved to 14-3 with a win over Springfield International Charter, then the No. 2-ranked team in Division 5.

 

Wahconah earned that win over the Bulldogs in overtime on Saturday afternoon, and Olivia Gamberoni led the way with 28 points, including seven in a 9-7 OT.

 

Earlier in the week, the junior scored 26 points in a Senior Night win over Monson in Dalton.

 

Gamberoni is half of one of the county's top 1-2 scoring combinations with Grace Wigington. The pair average 17 points per game and 18 points per game, respectively.

 

Wahconah wraps up the regular season on Wednesday with another road test, this time at Division 1 West Springfield.