Barnes Leads Mounties to State Tournament Win
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. – The Mount Greylock boys basketball team Monday kept dancing with a 69-55 victory over the visiting team Bromfield school(11-10) in the preliminary round of the Division 5 State Tournament.
Seamus Barnes led Mount Greylock(15-6) with 20 points, half of them coming from the free throw line.
“Really excited,” Barnes exclaimed. “You know, we want to try and go on the run. We want to see what we can do. We have a long trip ahead of us, all the way to Salem, but you know, we want to try and go on the run. We want to try and win a few games, I guess. Really excited.”
In addition to Barnes’ 20, Chase Doyle had 16 points, eight coming from the second quarter. Each with 11 points was Adam Sandifer and Liam O’Keefe. O’Keefe had a strong first quarter hitting three treys, also marking this his best scoring game to date.
“I felt good. We all felt good.” O’Keefe exclaimed. “We just had a lot of energy going into game. We started a little bit flat but then we started picking it up … Seniors didn’t want it to be our last game.”
For the out of towners, Bromfield’s Luke Maclean had an impressive 20 points. Ethan Russo followed up with 17.
“We’re a young team. Six freshman. Hopefully, we'll learn from this experience, and move forward from there.” Bromfield’s head coach Tim Skaggs said.
With less than 45 seconds on the clock before the half Bromfield led by three. Then, after receiving a pass from Max McAllister, Doyle drove through the lane finding the hoop and collecting a foul in the process. After making a clutch free throw, the game was tied 28-28. Bromfield then failed to respond giving Mount Greylock 10 final seconds left for one last play when the Mounties executed a perfect pick and roll set by Barnes that allowed Doyle to score once again with a pull up jumper.
"We're all together," Doyle said. "Just everybody has a role. So sometimes it's one guy another time it's another."
Then seconds before the buzzer, Russo of Bromfield was fouled on a Hail Mary shot from half court that sent him to the line, where he made two of three, which made the game 30-30 before heading into the locker room.
Coming out of the half, Mount Greylock found its stride in the third, opening with an 8-0 point run. With the help from forced turnovers and boards this went on to be the Mounties' best quarter, outscoring their opponents, 23-8.
"Oh, I wish I could say I waved a magic wand or something," Mount Greylock coach Bob Thistle joked. "But it wasn't that, I think this team Bromfield had a good record. You know, you get in the state tournament everything goes out the window. It's who wants it more. They played a great first half. There was some things we needed to do better though. I didn't think our physicality was where it should be. We didn't put bodies on people and we weren't strong with the ball.
"So, you know, we did some X's and O's things in the second half, but a lot of it was the kids just being more physical. And we didn't want our season to end. In a state tournament now. Nothing's gonna be given to you. You're gonna have to go out and take it."
The 22nd-seeded Mounties will play away in the tournament's Round of 32 against the No. 11 seed, Salem Academy Charter on Friday.