Lenox Pulls Away Late to Edge Mount Everett
SHEFFIELD, Mass. -- Brendan Armstrong scored six points in an 8-3 run Thursday that closed the game and gave the Lenox boys basketball team a 48-44 win over Mount Everett.
The Millionaires led most of vacation week matinee, but Mount Everett opened the fourth quarter with a 12-1 run to erase a 10-point deficit and take a 41-40 lead with 2 minutes, 52 seconds remaining.
"We just told them ... to calm down a little bit," Lenox coach Scott Sibley said of his message to the team during the fourth quarter. "We didn't need a 3-point shot at that time. We needed to run the shot clock a little bit and attack the glass.
"I think we did a good job of attacking the glass. Unfortunately, we didn't do a good job of making our foul shots after that."
Lenox went 7-for-14 at the foul line as a team in the fourth quarter. But Armstrong was 4-for-6 at the charity stripe in the last 1:27 and drove the right wing for Lenox's only field goal in the last eight minutes.
Michael Butler led Lenox with 20 points. Armstrong finished with 11. Brady Mickle scored six points to go with nine rebounds, and Shaler Larmon had six points and seven boards despite being hampered with foul trouble much of the afternoon.
Michael Ullrich scored 13 points, and Matt Lowe scored 12 -- all on 3-pointers -- to lead the Eagles, who got 11 rebounds from Justin Foster.
One of Lowe's triples started Mount Everett's fourth quarter comebacks.
After he cut the deficit to 39-32, Foster put back an offensive rebound on the Eagles' next possesion to get them within five.
Butler hit a free throw to give Lenox a six-point cushion, but Mount Everett scored the next seven: a Jordi Peck putback, an and-one in transition by Ullrich and a bucket in the post from Ben Monteleone that gave the hosts their first lead since the first quarter at 41-40.
On Lenox's next possession, Butler drove the lane and got to the line, where he hit both his foul shots to make it 42-41 with 2:12 on the clock.
Armstrong's basket with 1:36 made it a three-point game, and he got to the line on the Millionaires' next two possessions, making two of four to make it a two-possession game at 46-41 with 1:09 left.
Lowe's second triple of the quarter got Mount Everett within two with 50 seconds on the clock, but that was all the scoring Lenox allowed the rest of the way. Armstrong sealed the win with a pair of free throws with 41 seconds left, and the Millionaires forced a turnover with 19 seconds left to help dash Mount Everett's hopes of another comeback.
Turnovers were a huge factor in the first half and third quarter.
Lenox forced 21 turnovers in the first 24 minutes. The Eagles (3-3) did a much better job in the fourth, giving the ball away on just three possessions.
"That was something we've been working on a little in practice," Sibley said. "We won't press everybody. We kind of pick and choose when we press and who we're going to press. We don't want to run with all of the teams we see. We thought with Mount Everett being a little bigger, maybe we could tire them out a little bit by pressing them.
"I think it worked. We had quite a few [turnovers] in the first half."
Lenox's offense, meanwhile, was driven by Butler, who scored 17 of his 20 in the first three quarters.
"He played very good for us against Drury," Sibley said. "He struggled a little against Monument and the other night against Pioneer. But he came out tonight -- Michael's a kid who is going to give you 100 percent day-in and day-out. Some days the shots fall, some days they don't. He was able to come up with a few big steals for us today and some big baskets.
"It was nice to see him have another nice day for us today."
Lenox (2-3) goes to Mahar on Monday. Mount Everett is at Mount Greylock on Monday.