Wahconah Rolls over Upper Cape Tech
DALTON, Mass. – It is tournament time, and Wahconah boys basketball coach Dustin Belcher is not letting his team look too far ahead.
But after dismantling Upper Cape Tech, 73-38, in the Division 4 preliminary round on Monday night, Belcher did take a moment to look back.
“I’m not sure everybody totally understands the way this new [statewide tournament] format is, but it benefits us to play in the league we play in,” Belcher said. “It’s not the hold days where you’ve got to win 10 games to get in [the Western Mass tournament].
“You’ve got to get in. And once you get in, and you’ve played the schedule we’ve played, you can see the difference. We played at a different level tonight.”
Sam McLaughlin scored 17 points, and Cooper Calvert and Evan Alfonso added 13 and 11, respectively as No. 24-seeded Wahconah (9-12) won its third straight game and won for the fourth time in five games.
The victory sends Wahconah east for a Saturday game in the Round of 32 against No. 9 Manchester Essex (15-5), a program Belcher’s squad last played in the first year of the statewide tourney, a 58-53 Wahconah win to reach the state semi-finals in 2022.
On Monday, Wahconah set the tone early with a 10-0 run that ended when Aidan Hagmaier scored with an assist from Jack DuCharme (six assists) to make it 12-2 with about three minutes left in the first quarter.
It was 23-11 with five minutes left in the second when Wahconah started a 19-2 run that stretched into the second half.
Calvert got things started with a steal at one end and a trip to the line at the other. He later added his third of four 3-pointers to make it 36-13 late in the half.
Landon Corcoran opened the second half with a basket assisted by McLaughlin to make it 40-13, and McLaughlin had a steal and lay-up to cap the run at 42-13.
After the visiting Rams scored a couple of baskets, Wahconah pushed the margin to 43 points with a 15-0 run that Jake Wasuk ended with a triple with two minutes left in the third to make it 59-16.
Upper Cape Tech made a dent in that margin in the fourth, when Belcher emptied his bench and Wahconah ran the shot clock down to the end before looking to the basket.
After holding its last three opponents in the 30s, Wahconah is reaping the rewards of a schedule that included league foes Taconic and Pittsfield and independent games against Monument Mountain and Hoosac Valley.
“I think we stayed hungry all year,” Belcher said. “We had to win our last two, we thought, to get in, and I think we got on a little roll. We had a good win the other night at Chicopee.
“These guys are too focused to look past anybody. And now we’re going to go give Manchester Essex the best game we can. … We know it’s going to be a tall order. But, again, I’m confident in the schedule we’ve played. We’ve been in that arena all year. We’ve taken Pittsfield to overtime. Early on, we took Hoosac to overtime. We’ve been in those games that we think are going to pay off for us down the stretch.”