Hoosac Valley Boys Stop Greenfield
CHESHIRE, Mass. – The Hoosac Valley boys basketball team snuck past Greenfield with a, 76-68 win, Friday night.
Adan Wicks and Trevor Moynihan led the way for the Hurricanes scoring 27 and 23, including a big fourth quarter from Wicks. Will Hakes chipped in with 12 of his own.
It was the prettiest start by any stretch of the imagination for either team, but Hoosac (4-2) looked like the better team early on. After going down 2-0 they responded with a 9-0 run, including a Qwanell Bradley and-one.
Bradley’s basket was the only one from inside the arc as Hoosac Valley lived by the 3 ball early on. The Hurricanes finished the quarter up, 15-10. The willingness to shoot the 3-pointer forced Greenfield to close out better in the second quarter, giving the Hurricanes the ability to dribble, drive and knock down uncontested twos for the remainder of the half. Moynihan scored six from inside the arc and added two more from the line.
As the half went on, Bradley found himself in some foul trouble and was on the bench for most of the second quarter, giving Greenfield the opportunity to throw it inside to their big man who had 10 in the quarter bringing Greenfield right back into it. Greenfield would finish the half down, 32-29, leaving it all up for grabs in the second half.
“With the shots we had in the first half I thought we should have had about a 15-point lead.” Hoosac Valley coach Bill Robinson said. “The shots were wide open, and we needed to knock those down, but we missed about five or six 3s in a row, which isn’t us.
“Then when Bradley was out it didn’t help with their size they got the ball inside. I didn’t think we had much energy tonight, but they had even less so it was a good win for us.”
Greenfield continued to push Hoosac in the second half building off of the momentum from the second quarter. They continued to get good usage inside the paint and took their first lead of the game since they were up 2-0 to start the game.
Hoosac trailed by six going into the fourth quarter, and that is where Wicks took over the game. He scored 11 consecutive points for Hoosac, giving them the lead back, 63-62. He finished the quarter with 17 points including 4 3-pointers. His last three gave the Hurricanes a six-point lead, and from that point on it was all Hoosac.
Bradley knocked down two free throws with just less than a minute left and that sealed the game. Greenfield elected to foul with a little over a minute left down three and the strategy backfired as they were unable to keep pace with Hoosac.
“Our two guards always get us going between Adan and Trevor,” Robinson said. “They’ve been playing really well and everyone knows that now, but Adan stepped up big, he had a huge second half for us and when we went down he came out and had that run to take the lead and built on it from there.”
Hoosac Valley will play host to South Hadley on Monday in hopes to get a little bit of a run going as the season gets going.