Hoosac Valley's Frederick, Taconic's Walker Recognized

If the postseason is anything like the final night of the regular season, Berkshire County high school basketball fans are in for a wild ride.

 

Thanks to weather delays earlier in the season, the games between the Pittsfield and Hoosac Valley girls and Taconic and Drury boys were rescheduled to Thursday, the final night games could be played before Saturday’s seeding for the Western Massachusetts tournaments.

 

As luck would have it, both those games ended up deciding Berkshire North Division Championships.

 

Kailynne Frederick, a veteran of three Western Mass champion teams in Cheshire, led the Hurricanes in their latest league championship-clinching win by scoring a game-high 23 points in a come-from-behind, 59-57 win over the Generals.

 

Frederick and fellow senior Fallon Field will gun for their fourth appearance in the state championship game starting on Friday against either Monument Mountain or Granby.

 

Taconic’s boys beat Drury, 62-56, in a game that featured four fourth-quarter lead changes.

 

Devon Walker scored a game-high 20 points, including 19 in the first half alone. Earlier in the week, he scored a game-high 17 to lead Taconic in a 67-58 win over Hoosac Valley.

 

Taconic opens its Division 2 Western Mass run at Curry Hicks Cage next week in the sectional semi-finals. Walker and his teammates will be looking to put behind them memories of last year’s quarter-finals, where fourth-seeded Taconic was upset by city rival Pittsfield High.

 

Many, like Walker, also will be looking for their second Western Mass title of their senior year, building on the success Taconic enjoyed in last fall’s football sectionals.

 

“We’ve been through a lot together the past couple of years,” Walker said. “Now we just have to keep the momentum going into the tournament.”

 

The iBerkshires.com Athlete of the Week is sponsored by Jiminy Peak.