Hoosac Valley Outlasts Drury
CHESHIRE, Mass. – The Hoosac Valley Thursday ground out a tough win against rival Drury , 43-31.
Rivalries will always draw a crowd and a tight, physical battle and this was no different between the Hurricanes of Hoosac Valley (11-3) and the Blue Devils of Drury (6-5).
For Hoosac Valley, Genevieve Lagess led the way with 16 points, while Emma Meczywor added te10n, and Ashlyn Lesure chipped in with eight.
It was a slow start for both teams on the offensive end with nearly 2 minutes going by before either team could get on the board. It was Lagess with a nice and-one to get it going. She finished the quarter with six p,oints and really was the spark Hoosac needed when the rest of the team was struggling.
“I guess you expect a little bit of a sloppy game with it being Drury vs Hoosac, but the first half was sloppy for both teams and thankfully we cleaned it up in the second half,” Hoosac Valley coach Jon Frederick said. “Drury just couldn’t get the ball to go through the hoop and we did.
“We know where Genevieve is, we know she can score, but it’s a matter of keeping her on the floor and keeping her out of foul trouble. I couldn’t be more happy with her tonight.”
On the defensive end, Hoosac Valley gave Drury fits early on with their 1-3-1 defense speeding Drury up early on. Drury didn’t find their first basket until the 4-minute mark in the first quarter, but the Blue Devils slowly worked their way into the game cutting it to just a two-point deficit after one quarter of play.
Neither team could find any real rhythm on offense, and some of the best chances in the game for Drury came off offensive rebounds or transition steals. Hoosac Valley started the second quarter on an 8-0 run while keeping Drury scoreless for the first five minutes of the second. Drury started to get some good looks but just couldn’t get the shots to fall.
“Our shooting percentage is the reason for the loss, and it wasn’t for the lack of good shots. We just couldn’t make shots” Drury coach Ian Downey said. “When you play good teams you have to make those shots you get, they are a good defensive team and we know they are going to make it difficult so when we get fast break layups and open threes we have to knock them down and unfortunately we didn’t do that tonight.”
Hoosac Valley held Drury to just two points in the second quarter and was able to give itself a 10-point lead going into the break.
Second half action saw Drury pick it up a little bit on the offensive end starting with a 3-pointer from Jacinta Felix, who had five points on the night. Elise Daly had the team-high with nine points and Hayden Ashlyn with seven.
Drury finished the third quarter with a nice run, cutting the deficit to eight points going into the fourth and they continued that momentum on the other side of the quarter scoring four more putting them on an 8-0 run to bring it within four points at, 31-27. This time for Hoosac, it was Emma Meczywor who knocked down the big shot to keep Drury at bay, followed by an Ashlyn Lesure triple. Hoosac Valley extended the lead to 16 and did not look back.
“We knew what we wanted to do but we didn’t start to execute till the beginning of the fourth quarter,” Frederick said. “We struggled but then started to get things clicking and we finished on an 8-0 run or something like that and it was a plus.
“For us to have an 8th grader and a 9th grader out there and be productive is a good thing.”
This was Hoosac’s fifth win in a row and they will look to continue that streak against Monument, on the road, Monday.
Drury will regroup and take on Wahconah, on the road, Monday.