Youth Basketball Tournament Finals Held
Housatonic’s boys and Dalton’s and Mount Greylock’s girls won Berkshire County seventh- and eighth-grade travel basketball titles on Sunday afternoon.
The Housy boys defeated the Boys and Girls Club Black team, 57-47, in the all-county title game at Mount Greylock Regional School behind 17 points from Ty Higgins.
At McCann Tech, the Greylock girls defeated Lenox, 32-30, thanks to a nine-point performance from Abby Hugger to win the South Division title.
In the North Division final, Maria Gamberoni scored 13 points to lead Dalton to a 43-27 win over the Boys & Girls Club.
In the final game of a busy weekend in North County, Housatonic’s boys opened a 14-point lead on the Boys & Girls Club Black only to see the Pittsfield squad pull back within eight with 1 minute, 5 seconds left when Sincere Moore (15 points) hit a 3-pointer to make it 55-47.
But Housy was able to break the press on the ensuing possession and Kieran Santos fed Sam Jaffe for an easy two to push the lead back to double digits. Jaffe finished with 12 points along with being a force on the glass for Housatonic.
Moore and Emmanuel Nda each scored 15 for Boys & Girls Club Black.
At McCann Tech, fans were treated to a thrilling overtime win by Dalton to get past Drury North Adams in the North semi-finals.
Then it was the South finalists’ turn to thrill as Lenox led by as many as eight points in the third quarter behind strong performances by Sophie Patella (10 points) and Anna Najimy (11 points).
Greylock went on a 7-1 run to make it a one-possession game when Emma Stevens set up Talia Cappadona for a 3-pointer to make it 21-19 with 3:10 left in the third.
Greylock took its first lead since early in the game when Hugger drove the right wing and scored to make it 27-26 and start a 7-2 run with 5:35 left.
Emma Stevens (seven points) put back a rebound at the foul line, and Hugger drove the baseline for a pair and hit a free throw on back-to-back possessions to make it 32-28 with about three minutes left.
Lenox scored again with about two minutes on the clock but was not able to get the equalizer.
In the finale of the girls tournament, Morgan Marauszwski scored eight and Kassidy Kiejmas added six to go along with Gamberoni’s 13.
The Boys & Girls Club was led by Emery Sime and Ciany Conyers with seven apiece.
Elsewhere on championship Sunday, the Boys & Girls Club Black team defeated the Boys & Girls Club Blue, 83-33 in the boys fifth- and sixth-grade county final. Nick Brindle hit four 3-pointers on the way to a 21-point day for the Black team, which got 18 from Kevon Wilson. Will Kinne led the Blue team with nine.
Host Greylock’s seventh- and eighth-grade boys team bowed out on Sunday when it took its second loss of the double-elimination tournament, a 60-58 decision to Lenox, which got 28 points from Andre Collins.
Greylock was led by Derek Paris with 28 and Pablo Santos with 16.
“Our kids had a great run and played their hearts out,” Greylock coach Rick Paris said. “We had kids all over the place fighting for every loose ball it was awesome. Unfortunately we came up a basket short.”
