Mounties Win Big at Coaches vs. Cancer Event

PITTSFIELD -- The only thing holding back the Mount Greylock girls' basketball team in the first quarter on Saturday afternoon was its own aim.

Once they found the mark, the Mounties were unstoppable.

Lucy Barrett scored a game-high 19, and Mackenzie Flynn added 10 to lead Mount Greylock to a 62-27 win over St. Joseph's in the second game of the sixth annual Berkshire County Girls Basketball Coaches vs. Cancer Showcase at Taconic High School.

The Mounties shot 2 for 20 but still managed a 7-6 lead after one quarter.

Then in the next eight minutes, Greylock scored 25 points, with Barrett getting 12 on her own in addition to two of her six steals on the afternoon. The Mounties took a 32-14 lead into halftime and never looked back.

Afterward, she said that she got back to fundamentals after a disappointing start to the game.

"It's frustrating not to have all my shots fall," she said. "Some threes were bouncing in and out. But it's all about being squared up and following through, and when I started doing that, my shots were falling."

Mount Greylock coach Paul Barrett said his sophomore guard -- and daughter -- is a key to the team's production.

See more game photos here.

"She's actually been struggling a little bit," Barrett said. "We're still working on getting her to finish on the lay-ups and that kind of stuff. ... We're better in transition and having some rhythm as opposed to half court and getting it and having to think about it, although she can spot up shoot, too.

"There was a lid on it early, and then once that sort of came off, it was nice to have that output. Honestly, we need that output. If she's not scoring, everyone else is not necessarily looking to score. ... If somebody takes her out of the equation or we take her out of the equation because she's not shooting well, we're going to be in a lot of trouble."

Barrett is averaging 14.4 points per game for the Mounties, who are 4-6 after breaking a three-game losing streak on Saturday afternoon.

St. Joe's also is 4-6 after dropping its second straight. The Crusaders were visibly affected by the flu bug that closed their school on Friday and forced its boys' basketball team to reschedule one game and drop an independent game from its schedule.

Senior Kendall Smith scored eight points and grabbed 16 rebounds for St. Joe; 15 of those rebounds came in the first half before coach Jack Quinn started giving some of his starters more rest.

The game started to get out of hand about midway through the second quarter when Greylock went on a 14-2 run. It started when Flynn fed Cheyanne Alcombright for a 3-pointer in the left corner to give the Mounties the lead for good, 12-9.

Mount Greylock's press produced back-to-back turnovers that led to four points later in the run. First, Kelsey Orpin got a steal and fed Barrett for a transition bucket. Then Barrett got her own steal and drew a two-shot foul, converting both to make it 23-11.

After St. Joe's Emylee Carnavale scored three straight at the line to get the lead back to single digits, the Mounties scored the last nine points of the quarter to go into halftime with an 18-point bulge.

Greylock continued the onslaught in the third, briefly pushing their lead to 31 when Alcombright scored in transition to make it 51-20 with 1:18 left in the quarter.

The Mounties will look to continue its winning ways on Tuesday, when it hosts Wahconah in the Mountie Dome.

As with the boys event at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts on Jan. 5, Saturday's girls event involved 12 different teams from throughout the county and raised money to benefit the American Cancer Society.

To defray the cost of the event, the referees volunteered their time to officiate the games.

18 inducted into Hall

Saturday's Coaches vs. Cancer event doubled as induction day for the inaugural class of the Berkshire County Girls Basketball Hall of Fame, which will be housed at Taconic High School.

Inductees included:

From Lenox -- Lisa Boenitz '84, Samantha Herrick '92,

From Drury -- Mary Gaudreau '79.

From Hoosac Valley -- Paula Hayden '77.

From Pittsfield -- Nina Kazura '44, Erin Ladley '97, Megan Ladley '01, Stephanie Ladley '94, Coach Bob O'Neil.

From Monument Mountain -- Anna Kinne '96, Anne Whalen '00.

From Wahconah -- Mary Langendorf, Megan Vaughan '02, Coach Robert "Boog" Powell.

From Lee -- Kelly Mcmanmon '05.

From Taconic -- Holly Steinman '98, Mickie Turner '94.

From the Berkshire County Basketball Officials Association -- Wray Gunn Sr.