Mount Greylock Girls Unselfish in Win Over McCann

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- Win a game 55-10 like the Mount Greylock girls basketball team did on Friday night, and you know a whole lot of things went right for your team.

 

But one statistic jumps off the box score after the Mounties' win over McCann Tech: Of Mount Greylock's 24 field goals, 13 came off of assists.

 

And to make that even more impressive, all but one of the Mounties had an assist as they picked up their 12th win of the season.

 

"We had our goals that we're focusing on, and a byproduct of that was just the way they were passing the ball," Greylock coach Paul Barrett said. "They were being unselfish.

 

"We had a few things in the past -- like on offensive rebounds, we'd just throw the ball up. So our focus is, on our offensive rebounds, to reverse the ball. And they did a great job with that.

 

"And they were just finding their teammates. It was great in that regard."

 

Arianna Walden had three assists to go along with a game-high 20 points. Haley Reinhard scored 10, Lucy Barrett scored nine, and Mackenzie Flynn scored eight with a game-high 14 rebounds for the Mounties (12-5).

 

McCann (6-13) was missing a few girls from its lineup, which accounts for some of the lopsided score. But another big factor was Mount Greylock's tenacious defense, which held the visitors to just two points at half-time.

 

"What I looked to was how they were defending, and we had some good close-outs," Barrett said. "For the most part, we were playing solid defense. That was exactly what we wanted."

 

Walden and Barrett each had three first-half steals for Mount Greylock.

 

McCann scored its first points on a putback by Alanza Quinones midway through the second quarter to make it 21-2.

 

Senior Eileen Zajac scored four points in the second half and had a team-high 12 rebounds for the Hornets.

 

McCann coach Mike Dowling said he was happy with the fact that his team kept fighting.

 

"At half-time, I was a little upset because they were playing with their heads down a little," Dowling said. "But in the second half they kept their heads up. They didn't give up."

 

Mount Greylock, which carries just nine players on its varsity, had to keep at least one starter on the floor throughout the game. But the Mounties did slow their offense down in the fourth quarter, scoring just nine points.

 

The Mounties will look to put the pedal back down on Saturday afternoon when they host Lenox, the first of three Berkshire County games to close the season before heading into the Division 3 tournament.

 

"What the girls are hoping for is to get a home game," Barrett said. "And we're looking at these [last] four games as a four-game season. You want to be playing your best basketball at the end, so it was good to see that focus, that we know we're not taking anything lightly. We're trying to pay attention to detail and do all those little things that will help us down the line."