A blistering start from the Pioneer boys basketball team proved to be the difference against Greenfield Thursday. 

The Panthers came out flying, creating turnovers and building a 21-10 lead after eight minutes. That double-digit lead held nearly the entire way, with Pioneer holding a 35-21 lead at the half and a 47-34 advantage going into the fourth quarter. 

The Green Wave made a late push, with Jackson Campbell knocking down a pair of 3’s in the final two minutes, the second of which cut the deficit to 52-45 with 45 seconds to play, but it would be the final basket Greenfield scored, with the Panthers holding on to earn a 54-45 Hampshire League South victory in Northfield. 

“I thought we set the tone early with energy and our effort made it hard to run offense,” Pioneer coach Scott Thayer said. “First half we shot the ball well and we worked for those shots. Second half, the ball movement stopped. Credit to Greenfield they didn’t roll over, that’s a good team.” 

It was the shooting from downtown that helped the Panthers (6-0) keep its unbeaten record intact. Pioneer knocked down seven 3’s in the contest, with Gavin Gammell (2), Josh Wood (3), Brayden Thayer and Alex McClelland making the 3-pointers. 

Kurt Redeker led the way with 13 points in the win, with Wood scoring 12 points and Gammell tallying eight points. 

Campbell had the hot hand for Greenfield, tossing in five 3’s to finish with 15 points. Jon Breor added six points in the loss. 

“They outplayed us tonight,” Green coach Angelo Thomas said. “They played better as a team than we did. We have to get out of our own heads. We didn’t give up and I was proud of how we cut the lead to seven but you can’t go down 22 against a team like that and expect to come back.” 

Frontier 70, Athol 58 – The host Redhawks built early leads of 11-0 and 17-4, never trailing en route to the victory on Thursday.

Athol (5-2) got as close as seven points in the second half but couldn't pull all the way back.

Frontier (4-5), which led 38-31 at halftime, was powered offensively by Max Millette's 18 points. Danny Fellows followed with 16 points while Owen Babb and Erich Brown tallied 11 points apiece.

Athol's Logan Cormier led all scorers with 20 points, while Conall Tontodonato was close behind with 17 and Ethan Bacigalupo added eight.

Lee 59, Turners Falls  49 – The visiting Wildcats led just 34-31 at halftime, but managed to create some separation for the road win on Thursday.

Branden Truesdell led the way offensively for the Thunder with 15 points, while Levin Prondecki scored nine points and pulled down 13 rebounds. JJ Charles added eight points on the night.

Smith Academy 74, FC Tech 68 – The Eagles got off to a blistering start, building a 27-14 lead after one quarter, but host Smith Academy rallied and ultimately made the plays down the stretch to secure the HL North win on Thursday in Hatfield.

County leading scorer Ty Sadoski dropped in a game-high 32 points for Franklin Tech (1-7), drilling four 3-pointers. Robert Belval also had a big offensive night with 17 points, while Robbie Murphy joined them in double figures with 10.

Trailing 39-33 at halftime, the Falcons (5-2) scored 24 points in the third quarter to take a 57-53 lead into the fourth. Griffin Smiarowski's 20 points powered the hosts.

Lenox 56, Mahar 47 – The Senators built a 22-11 halftime lead, outscoring the Millionaires by a 10-4 margin in the second quarter. But Lenox poured in 45 points in the second half, rallying for a 56-47 Hampshire League South victory.

The lead was just 29-28 for the Millionaires (3-3) entering the fourth quarter.

Mahar dropped to 3-4 overall.

Hockey

Greenfield 3, Minnechaug 2 — Hunter Smith was the hero for the Green Wave on Thursday. 

Greenfield led 2-0 going into the third period, but Minnechaug stormed back to tie the game and force overtime. 

Smith made sure the Green Wave wouldn’t walk away with a loss, burying a shot with 3:36 to go in overtime to lift Greenfield to a 3-2 victory. 

“This is a great win for us,” Greenfield coach Adam Bouchard said. “At the end of the day it was an amazing high school hockey game. Happy to get a victory.” 

Jayson Smith and Jack Laurie had the assist on Smith’s tally. Matt Garvin picked off a pass in the first period and finished the breakaway to give the Green Wave (5-3) the early lead. Luca Siano then scored 30 seconds later off passes from Sammy Knight and Derek Wissmann to make it a 2-0 game in the opening period. 

Josh Bordeaux stopped 36 shots in the victory. 

]]>