WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- Youth was served in the Mountie Dome on Thursday night as a freshman put up big numbers to help the Wahconah girls basketball team to a 58-26 win over a very young Mount Greylock squad.
Olivia Gamberoni, who on Wednesday helped her big sister join the 1,000-point club in Wahconah’s opener, scored 19 points of her own and grabbed 12 rebounds as Wahconah improved to 2-0.
“Good coming out party for her, huh?” Wahconah coach Liz Kay said of the younger Gamberoni. “She’s good. And she’s gonna be good. She certainly has all the talent in the world, but it’s high school, and the physicality and the pace you’ve got to get used to.
“She’s such a good distributor, and [freshman] Olivia Mason, the big kid, they’ve played together since they were kids. Those kids know how to find each other, too. I think they’re getting more comfortable by playing -- because now, obviously, we’re playing four days in a row. You don’t have to think, and I think the less they think, the better they’re going to get.”
Maria Gamberoni finished with a game-high 23 points and registered seven steals, and Mason grabbed eight caroms.
Olivia Gamberoni had eight of her rebounds in the first half, when Wahconah took a while to rev things up on the offensive end.
Mount Greylock (0-2) held the Warriors to nine points in the first quarter, and it was a four-point game, 17-13, in the middle stages of the second quarter.
Kay credited Olivia Gamberoni’s savvy for her performance on the glass.
“She’s incredibly athletic, obviously,” Kay said. “Maria [Gamberoni] has been one of our best rebounders for four years. Olivia is right out of that mold as well.
“She just has a nose for the ball. I don’t think it’s necessarily jumping ability or physicality. She just knows where it’s going to go. … She has a high basketball IQ, but I guess that’s what you get when you’re hanging out with your sister your whole life, right?”
Wahconah took control of the game with a 12-0 run to push its lead to 29-13. The run was capped by a sequence that featured both Gamberoni sisters: First, Maria set up Olivia for a 3-pointer, then Maria got a rebound on the defensive end and Olivia scored in transition to make it a 16-point game.
After Gabby Quagliano scored in transition for the Mounties, Wahconah closed the half with a 7-0 spurt to take a 27-10 lead.
It was all but over after Wahconah outscored its hosts 19-0 in the third, the second night in a row Kay’s team shut out an opponent for eight minutes.
Mount Greylock’s offense was led by Abby Scialabba with eight points. Molly Sullivan had seven rebounds.
The Mounties dressed just two seniors and one junior, and coach John Jacobbe said they can build on a strong start that saw his young squad stand up and challenge the 2019-20 Western Mass finalists.
“This whole year is a weird year, and we’re trying to get better,” Jacobbe said. “That’s our only focus is to get better every night, and the girls are working hard. I’m proud of them.
“There’s 10 sophomores, freshmen and eighth-graders out of the 13 players. So that means we’re trying to build a bright future while competing now. I thought we competed really well for about 15 minutes of the game tonight. And then when we struggled a little bit, and Wahconah shoved it down our throats. … They didn’t expect to be in a game, and they were early, and then they took over, like the veteran team that they are. And we had no answer.”
Mount Greylock travels to Monument Mountain on Saturday. Wahconah continues a busy stretch to start the year when it hosts Monument on Friday.
