TURNERS FALLS — Chace Novak stared down a big shot from deep with a playoff berth hanging in the balance for the Turners Falls High School basketball team against Mahar Regional School, Monday night.
Without hesitation, Novak swished the clutch 3-pointer late in the fourth quarter to help seal a 61-53 win and a WMass Division 4 playoff berth for the Thunder.
The shot came after Ryan Campbell picked off the most important of his 10 steals for Turners Falls.
“I have faith in my teammates to see me,” Novak said. “My shot wasn’t really falling. When I hit that 3 a lot of emotions came through.”
The shot gave the Thunder a 52-49 late fourth-quarter lead. From there, the defense picked up the intensity, closing out the Senators.
“We played really good defense at the end,” Novak said. “It pretty much sealed the game.”
Thunder coach Gary Mullins enjoyed watching his team clinch the playoffs on the defensive end.
“We’ve been playing better defense lately,” Mullins said. “If we turn people over, we run the court really well. At least we can play now with a little less pressure because we got our 10th win.”
Turners Falls (10-8, 4-2 HL South) had a lead in the third quarter but it disappeared when Mahar’s Jordan Desrosiers caught fire from beyond the arc.
Desrosiers finished with 17 points and hit four 3-pointers with the last one giving the Senators a 45-41 fourth quarter lead.
Turners Falls fought back to even the score before pulling ahead. Tyler Lavin had 17 points for the Thunder and went 5-for-6 from the line in the fourth quarter.
Anthony Peterson had an active game scoring (13 points) and on the glass for the Thunder.
The Senators (13-7, 3-5) have now lost three out of their last four games.
“Turnovers, and we can’t defend,” Mahar coach Chad Softic said. “We did a poor job of recognizing shooters in the first half. Transition defense was awful. We know who are the good shooters, and we choose not to defend. You also have to give them some credit, they made some shots.”
Charlie Barnes and Eli Gonzalez both had 10 points for the Senators.
Barnes had four assists as well for the Senators.
After Mahar’s Noaha Chabot’s runner tied the game at 19-19 the Thunder closed the first half on a 10-2 run with some fiery outside shooting and activity on defense.
The halftime score was 29-21.
Mahar outscored the Thunder 15-7 in the third to get back into the game. A Desrosiers’ 3-pointer tied the game 36-36 at the third quarter buzzer.
The Thunder went on a 12-0 run in the first quarter to take an early lead.
A 3-pointer by Mahar’s Barnes ended the run and the insertion of Desrosiers into the game sparked 7-0 run for the Senators to end the first quarter.
Turners 61, Mahar 53
Mahar (53)
Desrosiers 6-1—17, Barnes 4-0—10, Tenney 2-0—4, Chabot 1-0—2, Carron 3-2—8, Lyesiuk 1-0—2, Gonzalez 5-0—10, Watson. Totals 22-3—53.
Turners (61)
Lavin 4-6—17, Campbell 2-2—6, Russell 1-0—2, K. Dodge 2-0—4, Whiting 2-0—5, Novak 4-4—14, Peterson 6-1—13. Totals: 21-13—61.
3-Point Goals: (M) Desrosiers 4, Barnes 2. (TF) Lavin 3, Whiting, Novak 2.
Score by quarters:
|
Mahar |
11 |
10 |
15 |
17 |
— |
53 |
|
Turners |
12 |
17 |
7 |
25 |
— |
61 |
