TURNERS FALLS, Mass. -- Mount Greylock's full-court press produced 16 first-half turnovers, and the Mounties built a commanding 40-point half-time lead en route to a 76-21 win over St. Mary's of Westfield on Thursday at the Eagle Holiday Classic at Franklin Tech.
Madison Powell had a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds to lead the way for Mount Greylock, which advanced to Friday's tournament final against either McCann Tech or the host Eagles, who were set to tip off later on Thursday evening.
Tanley Drake led all scorers with 16 points, and Madison Drake added 11. Annabelle Coody and Katherine Shelsy pulled down 10 and eight rebounds, respectively, in a dominating opening-night performance.
The Mounties played stifling defense in a 34-1 run that spanned the first and second quarters and established a 36-point lead.
As the first half wore on, the Saints (0-1) struggled to get the ball to midcourt, let alone over the time line, and the Mounties took advantage with an efficient offense that was nearly on a 100-point pace before slowing things down in the second half.
"We've got a lot of great kids who are committed to basketball and great athletes, and we're going to try to play more 94-feet this year," Mount Greylock coach John Jacobbe said.
"Tonight, we were playing a team that maybe wasn't quite ready for the press, and we made a lot of good things happen. So we want to build on it every night."
St. Mary's Audrey Amaral (12 points, 10 rebounds) put back an offensive rebound with five minutes left in the first quarter to make it an 8-6 game, and the Mounties took complete control from there.
Tanley Drake put back an offensive rebound at the other end to start a 12-0 spurt for the Mounties that Amaral ended with a free throw with 5 seconds left in the quarter.
Mount Greylock then scored the first 22 points of the second quarter -- six on a pair of 3-pointers from Mia Filiault.
It was 43-7 with 1:20 left in the half before Amaral scored to break a 6 minute, 45 second scoreless stretch for the Saints. Coody hit a couple of baskets in the closing moments of the half to send Mount Greylock into the locker room up, 49-9.
Mount Greylock did not press in the second half, but Tanley Drake hit a triple, and Powell had two of her four 3-pointers early in the third quarter to push the margin to 48 points, 61-13, before Jacobbe started to rest his starters for Friday night.
"Madison [Powell] is working hard," Jacobbe said. "She was named a captain because she's a great leader. I told her last year I wanted her to shoot 3s. And she shot more in the second half of the year and started making them, and this year, she took every open look she had tonight and was burying them. So I hope she gets confidence from that. I hope she gets the confidence in herself that I have in her."
Jacobbe hopes the whole team can take some positive vibes from Thursday's opener as the Mounties look to improve on last year's 5-15 finish and make a bid to get back to the state tournament for the first time since the 2021-22 season.
"The big thing I've told the girls all year is we need to control what we can control," he said. "Today, we might have been a little bit more talented as a team, and we controlled that and took it to them.
"Everybody shot the ball well, I thought. We shot well from 3, we shot well from the free throw line. And we've got to just keep getting better and better. We're a veteran team, but we're young. We only have two seniors. So we've just got to keep getting better and better."