Hoosac Boys Roll Over Wahconah
CHESHIRE, Mass. — Five wins in its last six games.
A 34-point win over then 7-4 Pittsfield followed by Thursday’s 60-36 win over Wahconah.
Thirty-four points per game allowed in Hoosac’s last three games.
And the really scary thing for the rest of Berkshire County? The Hurricanes’ coach insists his team is not quite "there" yet.
“We haven’t found ourselves yet,” Bill Robinson said Thursday night. “But we’re getting there.
“We’ve still got to clean up some things on both ends, offensively and defensively. We’re not a 70-point team, I’ll tell you that.”
The Hurricanes (7-5) were a 20-point team in the first quarter on Thursday night.
Four different Hoosac players hit a 3-pointer in the first eight minutes as the home team jumped out to a 20-7 lead at the first break.
That lead quickly ballooned to 28-7 in the opening minutes of the second quarter. Peter Barrow tipped in an offensive rebound, Matt Koperniak (13 points) hit a 3-pointer off a feed from Mat Carlow,and Koperniak drove the hole for a conventional three-point lead to give the Hurricanes a 21-point cushion they maintained for most of the rest of the night.
The exception came in the opening minutes of the third quarter, when Wahconah got a bucket in the post from Cole Morrison and then a steal by Matt Schneider, who was fouled intentionally going the other way. He sank both free throws, and Connor Washburn hit a jumper on the ensuing possession to get the lead down to 15, 38-23.
Hoosac then turned over the ball again, but Koperniak made a leaping steal in the middle of the court and fed Nolan Hayer for a lay-up to start a 12-1 run to the end of the quarter that left the Hurricanes with a 50-24 lead.
“They came out with a little momentum after half,” Koperniak said. “It was looking like they were going to make a run. But I got that steal and it helped out a lot. It helped build us momentum.”
Wahconah won a battle of the benches in the fourth quarter, but the game was already decided as Hoosac Valley built a three-game winning streak going into Saturday’s game against Mount Greylock.
Robinson was pleased with his team’s efficiency against Wahconah’s 2-3 zone, especially in the first quarter, when Hoosac Valley patiently worked for open shots and got triples from Avery Hall, Hayer, Koperniak and Keagan McGrath.
Another key for Hoosac: holding Wahconah’s Morrison scoreless until the third quarter.
“I think our defense is starting to play pretty well,” Robinson said. “We were focused on not allowing [Morrison] to get the ball inside as much. We had some breakdowns, obviously, where he touched it a little bit more in the second half.
“But I thought Pete Barrow did a nice job coming in and playing a lot of minutes that first half and just battling with him. We were fortunate to have Jameson [Coughlan] and him to battle with him. And even you put a kid like [Austin] Mendel in there, and he was able to battle a little bit.”
Schneider scored nine points, and Luke Steinman added eight for Wahconah (6-7) , which hosts Hampshire on Monday.