Monument Mountain Wins Title Rematch Against Pittsfield
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Monument Mountain Boys basketball team Saturday broke a 46 year Western Massachusetts title drought with a 68-64 win over Pittsfield in the Western Massachusetts Class B Final at the Boys and Girls Club.
For Monument Mountain, Manny Brown had a game-high 29 points while Griffin McElroy added 18 and Dom Calautti with 10.
It was a rematch from last year’s Western Mass title game, when Pittsfield edged out Monument by two points. In almost a similar fashion Pittsfield was the first to draw blood, taking the opening tip for a quick and easy layup. Pittsfield continued with the pressure, mainly behind Kyle Cardoso, who started off the game red hot.
Cardoso scored 12 of Pittsfield’s 16 first quarter points including a couple triples from deep and finished the night with 26 points.
It wasn’t until midway through the quarter when Monument started to grow into the game. The Spartans struggled shooting the ball but were active on the offensive glass, giving themselves multiple opportunities for second chance points.
The Spartans did a good job attacking the paint and getting to the free throw line. Monument Mountain scored five from the charity stripe early to keep them within striking distance. It wasn’t until late in the quarter when Manny Brown and the rest of the Spartans started to click scoring wise. Monument closed the quarter with a 17-16 lead.
In the second quarter, Monument continued that late momentum and went on a tear on the offensive end. The Spartans scored 28 points in the quarter, including 15 from their leader Manny Brown.
It was the good point guard play from Isiah Keefner and Griffin McElroy who kept finding the hot hand, helping Monument go on a run to break this game open. Dom Callautti scored six of his ten in the quarter as Monument was getting whatever it wanted inside and in transition. The Spartans finished the half up 15, holding Pittsfield to 14 points in the quarter to give itself a 45-30 lead.
Like most games between these two competitors, Pittsfield wasn’t going to give up that easy coming out of the halftime break similar to how they started the game. It was Kyle Cardoso and Freddy Conyers who got the Generals going, scoring a combined 15 points to help bring Pittsfield back into the game.
Pittsfield was able to cut the deficit to five points with 3:37 left in the quarter. On the next play Monument had a bit of a scare when Brown went down with an injury and had to be sidelined for an extended period of time. Monument used that as motivation and were able to right the ship, getting the lead back up to double digits.
“I thought the most important time of the game was when we were up five and Manny got hurt and we scored five straight points,” Monument Mountain coach Randy Koldys said. “The two kids that came in as freshman and sophomore did a great job under the pressure of the game so it was pretty cool to see.”
Monument then stretched the lead back to 11 points with just 3:46 left in the game. After a timely timeout from Pittsfield head coach Jerome Edgerton, Pittsfield found itself right back in the game after a 7-0 run to bring it to, 65-61 Monument
Griffin McElroy hit a couple of clutch free throws to make it a six-point lead. The next play Bri’Awn Thompson knocked down a big 3 to make it a one-score game, but after a made free throw from Brown, Pittsfield was unable to get any closer leaving them just short of back-to-back Western Mass champions.
One key change from Monument in the second half came when they went to a 2-3 zone similar to how they extended their lead in the first meeting between these two teams early this season.
“We felt we couldn’t match up to keep them in front of us, but it also helped us protect Griffin with his fouls and our young guys with all the defending they had to do,” Koldys said. “We had to do this the first time we played them and erased a 13 point deficit while in zone, but nothing is ever easy and we knew Pittsfield was never going to go away, so god bless the fact that we are standing here the way we are. I’m just proud of our guys with the gutsy effort they had all night.”
Monument will enjoy this Western Mass win, but will hope to get Manny Brown and the rest of the team healthy before they enter the Division 4 State Tournament as the No. seed, this coming week.
As for Pittsfield they will shake this off in hopes to make a deep run in the Division 3 State Tournament as the 17 seed.