Wahconah Girls Survive Test Against Taconic
DALTON, Mass. – The holidays were in the rear view mirror, but Wahconah girls basketball coach Liz Kay had reasons to be thankful after a hard-fought, 54-49, win over Taconic on Monday night.
“I would want to play every single game like that: tight, close, make our kids get better,” Kay said after her team survived a fourth-quarter rally by visiting Taconic. “We’ll learn from this, certainly.
“And I’m also very thankful we don’t play them again.”
After picking up its seventh straight win, Wahconah (7-1) has just one more game against a Berkshire County opponent on its schedule: a Jan. 20 rematch with Hoosac Valley, which handed Wahconah a five-point loss in the season opener.
Taconic (2-2) left quite an impression in its second straight five-point loss.
It was a double-digit deficit after Wahconah got back-to-back 3-pointers from Emma Belcher and Grace Wigington (12 points) to start the second half.
Wigington’s second triple of the game made it 37-22, and Wahconah maintained the double-digit lead into the third quarter when another Wigington bucket made it 48-33.
But that is when Alexandra Hudson (14 points) hit three straight 3-pointers to make it a two-possession game at 48-42 with 3 minutes left to play.
Taconic coach Matt Mickle said his team was deflated much of the night and its lack of energy at both ends of the floor turned around when those fourth-quarter shots started falling.
“Shooters have tough nights, but [Hudson] has to realize she’s our girl,” Mickle said. “She can go 0-for-15, and I still want her shooting the ball. She kind of got it going late. I don’t know the stats, but she shot the ball well at the end of the game.
“That’s Alex. That’s what she’s bringing. She plays good defense, and she’s going to hit some 3s for us. I was happy with how she kind of stayed with it. A lot of these kids are learning and growing right in front of us. With the year we had last year, we’ve got a lot of girls in places they haven’t played in a long time.”
Olivia Gamberoni (game-high 20 points) broke Taconic’s run when she drove to the basket from the right side and got to the foul line for a pair of free throws with 1 minute, 50 seconds on the clock. She made both shots to give Wahconah an eight-point cushion.
From there, it was largely a free throw shooting contest.
Wahconah made just enough of its tries – 4-for-8 in the final 1:08. Taconic scored five points from the line and got the only field goal in the last three minutes of play, a putback by Faith Cross (team-high 17 points, 15 rebounds) with 3.9 seconds left to make it a six-point game.
Ahliya Phillips nearly matched Cross with 16 points and pulled down a game-high 18 rebounds while passing out a few assists. Madison Winn finished with eight boards for Taconic.
“We were certainly lacking in the size department in comparison,” Kay said when asked about Taconic’s frontcourt. “But the thing about them is they’re also just as athletic as we are. Having Faith [Cross] down low and Winn down low was tough enough, but for them to match our athleticism when we thought that maybe that would be the one thing we could take advantage of, that’s when it gets really gutsy, I think.
“That’s why we’re lucky to get out of here with a win.”
Wahconah is home again Friday to take on Hampshire before playing three straight on the road.
Taconic hosts Sci-Tech on Wednesday.