Team Effort Lifts Hoosac Boys to Road Win

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- After playing to a 39-39 through three quarters on Saturday night, neither the Hoosac Valley nor Mount Greylock boys could do much offensively in the fourth quarter.

 

But the Hurricanes did just enough to earn a 51-42 win.

 

Avery Hall, Dahndray Sistrunk and Peter Barrow each finished in double figures as Hoosac won its second game in a row and reached the .500 mark (4-4) for the first time in a month.

 

Sistrunk did all his damage in the second half, scoring 13 -- nine on 3-pointers -- and Sistrunk and Barrow combined for all the points in a 7-0 run to open the fourth quarter.

 

"We just talked about guys stepping up when other guys are struggling a little bit," Hoosac coach Bill Robinson said. "Tonight, Sistrunk and Barrow - let's face it, we wouldn't have won the game if it wasn't for those two guys.

 

"Our big stars [Matt Koperniak and Jameson Coughlan] combined for, what, 10 on the night? We've got to have 40 out of those guys, and we only got 10. But in stepped Pete, in stepped Dahndray, in stepped Avery Hall in the first half. When things were going bad, Avery Hall kept us in that game."

 

Hall scored 10 -- all in the first half -- hitting three big 3-pointers when Mount Greylock was threatening to build an early lead. Barrow finished with 11 and seven rebounds.

 

Sistrunk opened the fourth quarter with a conventional three-point play off a short jumper from the right wing to make it 42-39.

 

Then on Mount Greylock's third possession of the quarter, the Mounties (5-4) lost starter Sean McCormack (10 points, five rebounds) when he drew his fifth foul battling Koperniak for a rebound.

 

At the other end, Sistrunk grabbed a rebound to get a second-chance opportunity for Barrow, who finished to make it 44-39, Hoosac's largest lead of the night.

 

After the teams traded turnovers, Barrow grabbed an offensive rebound off a missed free throw and ended up on the receiving end of a Colin Rousseau assist. Barrow's 11th point of the game made it 46-39 with 4 minutes, 27 seconds remaining.

 

Thanks to 11 Zach Ronnow rebounds, Mount Greylock had an edge in that department going into half-time. Hoosac ended up winning the battle of the boards, 37-34.

 

"We knew we had to shut him down," Barrow said of Ronnow, who finished with 16 boards and a team-high 13 points. "We put Koperniak on him, and he worked his tail off on defense. He was there boxing out, so that shut him down. I think Matt did a great job on him, which was key.

 

"Second chance points are always huge. It's something we work on in practice, we need to get those offensive rebounds. We've just got to hit shots when we need to, and that's what we did tonight."

 

Koperniak finished with 13 rebounds. Sistrunk matched Barrow with seven.

 

"We were more focused on our defense, like we are every game," Sistrunk said. "Crashing boards is something we always go over in practice. We've got to make sure we get the rebound. Little things win the game.

 

"Rebounds, that's what we always need to get in games. It will always lead out to something, a fast break or something."

 

Mount Greylock jumped out to a 13-5 lead early in the second quarter thanks largely to its 3-point shooting. Ronnow hit two triples in the first quarter, and Patrick Storie (11 points) hit a 3 on the Mounties second possession of the second quarter to create the eight-point bulge.

 

After the teams traded field goals, Hall connected from behind the arc on back-to-back trips, and Mat Carlow hit a pull-up in the lane to tie the game, 15-15.

 

From there, the teams played even, with Sistrunk setting up Barrow for a late bucket that gave Hoosac a 25-22 lead in the locker room.

 

In the third quarter, Mount Greylock got 3s from Storie, Brady Foehl and Ronnow to tie the game with eight minutes left.

 

"We played a good team hard, and we went stone cold in the fourth quarter," Mounties coach Bob Thistle said. "That was the difference in the game."

 

Mount Greylock, which notched one-point home wins earlier in the week against Monument Mountain and Wahconah, goes on the road for the first time since Jan. 4 when the Mounties play St. Joseph at Miss Hall's School on Tuesday.

 

Hoosac on Tuesday goes to Monument Mountain.

 

Robinson knows the next game will be another step in the maturation process for his team, which took some big steps forward this week by knocking off Drury and winning on the road against a quality opponent.

 

"We can't win games with one guy or two guys," Robinson said. "Everyone has to contribute on this club. We had 10 days off before the Drury game, and that's what we talked about: Everyone's got to do a little something, everyone has to bring something to the table and contribute, and when you're given the opportunity, do something positive.

 

"Everyone has this impression of us that we were a state finalist last year. That's not the same team we bring back. We lost two kids to graduation, we lost our best shooter for the year and we lost a 6-5 guy. We're nowhere near what we were last year. This is a new group of kids -- new roles, new positions. We're just trying to find our way.

 

"These guys are their own team. They're trying to find their own identity. Once they learn their roles, we'll take our shot."