Athletes of Week Help Teams Make Playoff Push

Mid-season playoff pushes are the common denominator in this week’s Athletes of the Week.

 

While a number of Berkshire County teams already have punched their tickets to the Western Mass basketball tournaments, some headed into the second half of January with a fair bit of work to do.

 

The Wahconah girls and Mount Everett boys were among those who found themselves squarely on the “bubble” a couple of weeks ago, but each has played its way into contention with a four-game winning streak.

 

Wahconah coach Liz Kay challenged her squad with a rugged independent schedule in December. And while it managed just a 1-4 start, Wahconah learned some lessons along the way.

 

It righted the ship when it got back into county play in January but still found itself with a 4-5 record after a mid-month home loss to Taconic.

 

Since then, Wahconah has not lost, and on Thursday night, Lily Pudlo scored a game-high 11 points in a 42-40 win at Taconic. It was her second double-digit scoring night during the current winning streak, which leaves Wahconah (8-5) two wins shy of 10 for the season with six games left to play, starting Tuesday at Drury.

 

Mount Everett’s boys dug themselves a big hole when they dropped to 4-8 on the season back on Jan. 20, but since then, the Eagles have evened their record going into Monday’s home game against Lenox.

 

Cavan Brady, the Eagles' leading scorer this winter, scored 18 points in Thursday’s win over Lee to move Mount Everett within two wins of its 10th victory.

 

Of the Eagles’ last four opponents, it already owns wins against two of them: the Millionaires and St. Joseph.

 

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