Pittsfield's Brown, Moorer Shine in Win over Mount Anthony
PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- Pittsfield’s Sincere Moorer got into the spirit of the season on Thursday, giving out 12 assists to help propel the Generals to a 77-56 win over Mount Anthony Union at the Hoop Club Holiday Classic at the Boys and Girls Club.
Pittsfield (2-1) stormed out to a 30-6 lead but had to hold off the Patriots in the fourth quarter, closing on a 17-3 run after Mt. Anthony drew to within six points with just less than five minutes left to play.
Moorer had eight assists in the first quarter to help Pittsfield build the big margin that it never totally relinquished.
“He was our motor, especially being the assist guy tonight,” Pittsfield coach Brandon Mauer said of Moorer. “He did a good job of recognizing that other people needed to score, even when his offense wasn’t going. He’d get in the lane and just become a threat. And that basically propelled us to victory.
“He has a good point guard’s mentality. We’re going to need that going through the season.”
La’Quan Brown scored a game-high 26 points, and Craig Jackson scored 16 points, pulled down 10 rebounds and passed out four assists of his own.
Brown shot the lights out in the first quarter, knocking down four 3-pointers on the way to a 16-point quarter.
Fittingly, Moorer set up Brown for a trey at the buzzer to give the Generals their biggest lead of the night, 24 points.
But the Patriots hit a switch between the first and second quarters.
Freshman Braeden Billert scored eight points in the second quarter as Mount Anthony went on an 20-3 run to cut the margin to seven points when Nick Salem hit a layup midway through the quarter.
Marlon Binns stopped the run for Pittsfield when he scored -- with an assist from Moorer -- and the Generals rebuilt their 11-point margin by half-time.
Pittsfield opened the second half like it did the first, going on a 14-3 run to lead by 22 when Kymani Harley drained a 3 with three minutes left in the third to make it 55-33.
Again, Mount Anthony had an answer, closing to within 11 points by the end of the third. And it opened the fourth with a 9-4 run. Austin Grogan (10 points) scored in transition, got a defensive rebound and got to the line and hit a free throw to cut Pittsfield’s lead to 59-53 with 4 minutes, 53 seconds left to play.
On Pittsfield’s next possession, Moorer drove the lane and dished to Binns for a bucket. After Pittsfield forced a turnover, Montgomery fed Brown for a 3 to make it 64-53.
After Mount Anthony got a bucket in the post to get the deficit to single digits one more time, Jackson hit a 3, and Montgomery scored on back-to-back possessions. Brown scored twice in transition to push the margin back to 20 points with 2:20 left, allowing Mauer to clear his bench.
“You can’t understate that it’s good to have a weapon like [Brown],” Mauer said. “When I have Craig Jackson, Kymani Harley, who went for 20 in the first two games. [Brown] comes out firing, and it takes the pressure off of everybody.”
Pittsfield is off until Dec. 27 when it travels to Tantasqua.