Coaches in the Hampshire League South talked all year about how tough the league was and how anyone could beat anyone on any given night.
As the Western Mass. tournament has shown, those coaches knew what they were talking about.
The Western Mass. Class C and D boys basketball championship games will feature matchups between Hampshire League South opponents. In Class C, Greenfield squares off with Drury while Pioneer and Hopkins meet in the Class D title game.
The Panthers and the Golden Hawks will be the opening game on Saturday at Westfield High School, with the third meeting between the two schools this season tipping off at noon.
Hopkins won the first matchup in Northfield, 60-53, on Jan. 10 but Pioneer responded by winning the second game between the two, 55-53. The second game ended up lifting the Panthers to the Hampshire League South title and the No. 1 seed in the Class D tournament. The Golden Hawks finished second in the league and were the No. 2 seed in Class D.
Pioneer reached the title game by knocking off No. 8 Baystate on Monday (52-39) before blowing out No. 5 Duggan (67-39) in the semis.
It’s been a three-headed scoring punch that has gotten the Panthers to the championship game. Junior Josh Wood and sophomores Brayden Thayer and Kurt Redeker have been the engine keying the Pioneer attack, each averaging over 14 PPG throughout the season.
Fellow underclassmen Alex McClelland, Hugh Cyhowski and Gavin Gammell have played big roles for Pioneer as well, as the young group has grown leaps and bounds this season.
Stopping Hopkins starts with containing freshman point guard Teddy Cyr, who scored 19 of his game-high 20 points in the second half to knock off Hoosac Valley in the semifinals.
Cody West and James Fitzgibbons are two other Golden Hawks the Panther defense will be tasked with slowing down.
“We’ve played Hopkins twice, they won here, and we won there,” Pioneer coach Scott Thayer said after the win over Duggan. “There are no secrets. It’s going to be a rock fight and a fun competition. It comes down to execution and the mental part of it, how you deal with the adversity that happens throughout the game.”
While Pioneer and Hopkins split their regular season matchups, it was the Blue Devils who had the edge over the Green Wave during their two regular season meetings.
Drury came away with two tightly contested wins over Greenfield this season, the first a 70-66 victory back in December in North Adams and the second a 67-64 triumph at Nichols Gymnasium on Jan. 30.
Angelo Thomas’ young Green Wave squad feels its turned a corner in recent weeks, however. Close games were nothing new to Greenfield, which had 11 of its 19 games settled by 10 points or less so far this year. Wednesday’s semifinal victory over Mt. Greylock showed the Green Wave can close out those tightly contested games.
Greenfield and the Mounties were deadlocked for nearly the entire game before Greylock pulled ahead in the final minute. Green Wave sophomore Caleb Thomas drained a 3 and Greenfield forced a turnover on the ensuing possession to advance to the finals with a 48-45 victory.
The No. 2 Green Wave started four sophomores and one junior in that contest. Caleb Murray has ran the point for Greenfield all season, with Jon Breor leading the charge inside. Jackson Campbell has spread out defenses with his shooting ability from deep while junior Jacob Blanchard does a little of everything.
“We’re really young but we’ve gained a lot of experience this year,” Angelo Thomas said after the win against Greylock. “Every game this year has felt like a battle. Now they’re super-sophomores and super-juniors. There’s no excuses now, we have to come and play. As much as these kids drive me crazy, I love them to death. It feels so much better on the winning end than the heartbreaking losing end. Now we know we can do it.”
The X-factor down the stretch for the Green Wave has been Thomas. The sophomore has turned it on down the stretch, scoring 20-plus twice in the last six regular season games for Greenfield, adding yet another scorer in the starting lineup the opposition has to account for.
Stopping Drury begins with slowing down Louis Guillotte. The senior leads the Blue Devils in scoring and dropped 21 points in the first game against the Green Wave before putting up 29 in the second matchup. Amont David has been his running partner, as he scored 20-plus in both games against Greenfield as well.
The fourth seeded Blue Devils reached the title game with wins over No. 5 Lenox (58-55) and No. 1 Paulo (51-46).
Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. on Saturday at Holyoke High School.
On the ice in West Springfield, the Greenfield hockey team is hoping to raise its second straight Western Mass. championship banner as it takes on Taconic in the Class C finals.
Unlike the Pioneer and Greenfield boys basketball teams, the Green Wave won’t be seeing a familiar opponent on Saturday. It’ll be the first time Greenfield and the Thunder meet this season, with both entering the championship game with plenty of confidence.
In the four-team Class C tournament, the No. 1 Green Wave got to the finals in emphatic fashion, blowing out No. 4 Southwick, 8-0. No. 2 Taconic led No. 3 South Hadley 2-1 heading into the third period, but the Thunder took over in the final 15 minutes by putting six goals on the board to run away with an 8-1 win.
Matt Lavoine led the way with four goals for Greenfield while Jake Jurek, Hunter Smith, Jamison Boleno and Derek Wissmann also found the back of the net. The Green Wave have gotten plenty of scoring production in their lineup this year, with senior goalie Josh Bordeaux showing all year why he’s one of the toughest goalies to face in Western Mass.
With plenty of tournament experience, Greenfield is looking to win another Western Mass. title and enter the MIAA Div. 4 state tournament on a high note.
“We’ve been in this kind of situation before,” Lavoine said after the win against Southwick. “We’ve been in playoffs every year since I’ve been here. So it’s kind of normal.”