Brady Foehl, Mounties Pull Away from St. Joe in Second Half
PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- Brady Foehl scored nine points of his 17 points in the third quarter Friday night as the Mount Greylock boys basketball team broke open a six-point game and led by as many as 25 before taking a 66-50 win over St. Joseph at the Boys & Girls Club.
Cameron Hadley scored 12 points with 10 rebounds, and Sean McCormack and Pat Storie added 10 apiece as the Mounties (7-4) won their fifth straight.
St. Joseph (3-9) led by six early and led as late as the 5 minute, 31 second-mark of the second quarter when Kekoa McArdle (six points, 13 rebounds) was fouled in the post and hit one of his two free throws to make it 17-16.
But Cameron Hadley scored four points in an 8-2 Mount Greylock run that helped the Mounties take a 28-22 lead into half-time.
After the break, Mount Greylock turned up the heat defensively.
“I think our kids in the second half really got after it with our press,” Mount Greylock coach Bob Thistle said. “It’s one of those things that you don’t always see in the first half. But if you say, ‘Stick with it, stick with it’ -- St. Joseph has a short bench. They have some nice players, and the coach is doing a good job with this team. But we just felt if we took the long view, by the third or fourth quarter we could wear them down with our legs.”
A couple more contributors off the bench appeared to make a big difference as the Mounties pulled away late.
It was 37-28 with 4:54 left in the third after Miles Whitney-Nason hit both ends of a two-shot foul.
But the Crusaders turned it over on four straight trips to start an 11-0 Mount Greylock run.
McCormack got things started with a bucket in the post. Two trips later, Foehl, who hit back-to-back 3-pointers to open the quarter, got a conventional three-point play to make it 42-28.
Cole Wojtkowski hit a free throw, and then Sam Dils (five assists) scored in transition to make it a 17-point lead. McCormack closed the run with a 3-pointer off an assist from Fohel to make it 48-28 with about two minutes left in the quarter.
In addition to the Mounties’ defensive pressure, McCormack stepped up his game on the glass after half-time, getting nine of his game-high 16 rebounds before departing early in the fourth quarter.
Whitney-Nason and Elton Wilkins led St. Joe with 12 points apiece. In addition to McArdle’s team-high 13 boards, Wilkins and Jalen Duck finished in double figures on the glass.
Mount Greylock hosts Lee on Monday night, when St. Joe is home against Mount Everett.
“We came to scout [St. Joe] a couple of times,” Thistle said. “Their win-loss record doesn’t indicate we needed to, but we know they played teams tough. They’re young. They have size.
“They’ve got some good players on St. Joe. They’re going to knock somebody off. You’ve got to be ready every night in Berkshire County or you’re going to get beat.”