Sophomores Spark Mount Greylock to South Title

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- The Mount Greylock boys basketball team showed its depth and its firepower in a 77-68 win over Lee on Friday that clinched the Berkshire South Division title outright for the Mounties.

 

Five different players scored in double figures for Mount Greylock, including one who was swinging between the JV and varsity at the start of the season.

 

Sophomore Brady Foehl scored 10 points, grabbed seven rebounds, stole the ball three times and passed out three assists for Mount Greylock (13-6), which won its fifth straight.

 

"We know Pat Storie as a junior has had a big year for us and Zach Ronnow as a junior has had a big year for us," Mount Greylock coach Bob Thistle said. "But as we have won five in a row, now, what we've tried to do is share the ball a little bit more.

 

"Brady Foehl, who started out on JVs and then came up and swung a little bit and then played a few quarters -- now he's a starter. We're running three sophomores out in the starting lineup in Foehl, [Sam] Dils and [Sean] McCormack."

 

McCormack led the way on Friday with 18 points and nine rebounds. Ronnow had a double-double with 16 and 17. Storie scored 13, and Dils scored 11 to go with five assists.

 

All but one of the Mounties who got on the floor ended up in the scoring column. The contributions from the sophomore class has been key in a season that some might call a rebounding year but which Thistle will not.

 

"I'm real proud of the kids because as I've said before, there are no excuses, nobody cares," Thistle said. "You graduate seven seniors ... and these guys have not missed a beat. They stepped up. They stayed hungry."

 

Mount Greylock and Lee (9-9) set a blistering pace in the first quarter on Friday. The Mounties came out of the opening period with a 25-21 lead thanks to nine points from McCormack and seven from Ronnow.

 

It remained a two-possession game pretty much all night.

 

Lee drew within one point a couple of times in the third quarter, th elast when Sam Harding (11 points) scored in the post to make it 50-49 with 1 minute left in the third.

 

It was a one possession game again midway through the fourth when Tyler Buratto put back an offensive rebound to make it 60-57.

 

But the Mounties went on a 16-4 run from there. McCormack got things started with a conventional three-point play and set up Storie for a bucket to make it 66-59.

 

Dils and Cal Filson combined to go 5-for-6 from the line at the end of the run. Dils' free throw with 54 seconds left gave Mount Greylock its biggest lead of the night, 76-61 with 54 seconds on the clock.

 

From there, Mount Greylock's bench closed the door on Lee and sent the Mounties to the locker room to add another check mark to their "to do" list.

 

"We set the tone the very first day of practice when we picked the team: Nobody was going to expect anything from us," Thistle said. "People might say we're in a rebuilding mode, but we never, ever used that word.

 

"We have goals up in the locker room. One was to get to the tournament. The next one was the South, which we checked off tonight. The third one is the Cage."

 

Mount Greylock has one more regular season game -- Monday against Taconic -- before beginning its quest for the Western Mass semifinals a Curry Hicks Cage in Amherst.

 

Lee, meanwhile, has two more chances to get its 10th win and gain entry to the Western Mass tourney.

 

"We really wanted to close it out here tonight and then worry about Wahconah [Monday] and Lenox for seeding," Lee coach Tom Finnegan said. "Now, we've got to go hard tomorrow and Sunday to get ready for a Wahconah team at their place on Senior Night. That's no easy task. And then we close out with our No. 1 rival, Lenox, at Lenox.

 

"Not exactly how I would have drawn it up, but it is what it is. Hopefully we can steal one, maybe two out of that."