NORTHFIELD, Mass. -- A short bench and some short offensive possessions cost the Mount Everett boys basketball team on Saturday afternoon at Pioneer Valley Tech.
The host Panthers used a 10-1 third quarter to extend a five-point lead and cruised to a 53-38 win that snapped the Eagles’ three-game winning streak.
“I think we just started getting gassed out a little bit,” Mount Everett coach Jowe Warren said. “We only had a couple of subs. We used two or three off the bench today. We were missing one guy who wasn’t with us today, and not having one starter hurt us.
“But give Pioneer credit. The were getting up and down the court, trying to push it. We wanted to slow it down, but it seemed like the tempo was up too much for us to try to stay with them.”
Pioneer (7-3) got 13 points from Mike Menard and 10 from Tucker Llewelyn. The Eagles (4-6) were led by Cavan Brady with 15 points and two assists. Christian Behre grabbed nine rebounds in the loss.
Mount Everett did not help its cause by rushing too many possessions, especially in the third, when it committed seven turnovers.
“I felt like we weren’t patient enough on the offense,” Warren said. “The tempo they were setting made us feel like we had to come down, make one pass and take a quick shot. It’s not a good look, and we need to play more our game, slow the pace down a little bit, move the ball around on offense and take high percentage shots.”
Pioneer Valley scored the first eight points in the third before Brady was fouled in the post and hit one free throw with 1 minute, 40 seconds left in the quarter to make it 38-26.
Brady’s play was one of the few bright spots for Mount Everett.
“Cavan is a solid player, an all around player,” Warren said. “He’s coming off an injury from the last game, so he’s not 100 percent. He’s probably about 75 percent today, but he played his heart out. He played the entire game for us.
“At times, we try to rally around him to get us going when everybody us is taking awhile to get going. Sometimes, he leads us in that way. He makes a basket early, and then everyone else can follow behind.”
After Pioneer pushed its lead to 40-26 after three quarters, the Eagles got to within nine points on a couple of occasions but never could get over the hump.
Mount Everett will look to get back in the win column Wednesday when it hosts red-hot Monument Mountain. The Spartans (6-5) have won three straight, including wins over previously unbeaten Wahconah and Drury.
