Hoosac Valley's Wicks, Drury's Hayden Recognized

We wrap up our winter  iBerkshires.com/Bedard Bros. Athlete of the Week honors with two student-athletes who have their respective teams flying high heading into the state tournaments.

 

No one is seeded higher than the Drury girls basketball team, which, along with the school's boys team, is ranked No. 1 in the commonwealth going into the Division 5 playoffs that get underway on Tuesday.

 

The Blue Devils are 16-5 and are coming off a decisive victory in the Western Massachusetts Class C Championship Game.

 

Ashlyn Hayden scored a team-high nine points in a balanced Drury attack in that title game. And, this season, the Blue Devils junior is averaging about six points per game.

 

Not a huge scoring number, but plenty of offense on a Drury team that is allowing opponents just 31.7 points per game.

 

Hayden turned in one of the team's bigger individual defensive performances back on Jan. 29, when the Blue Devils avenged one of their losses, beating Pope Francis and 1,000-point scorer Maeve Turmel.

 

Turmel scored just two points with Hayden drawing the defensive assignment.

 

"We pride ourselves in trying to shut down the other team’s best player," Drury coach Ian Downey said that night. "Ash has that responsibility, but that also puts a lot of pressure on the other four players to do something. And to only give up 28 points against that team. … To do that is a total team effort.”

 

Drury is waiting to see who it will play next out of a preliminary round game between No. 33 Fenway and No. 32 Mohawk Trail.

 

The Hoosac Valley boys also are sitting, waiting and preparing for their tournament opener as the No. 8 team in Division 5.

 

That is too bad, few teams have been hotter than the Hurricanes down the stretch. Hoosac Valley, which was 4-6 midway through January, has gone 9-2 since then. The two losses came against Division 3 tournament team Pittsfield and D5 No. 1 seed Drury -- each by single digits.

 

Hoosac Valley is coming off a Western Mass Class D title win in which Adan Wicks scored a game-high 24 points.

 

For the year, Wicks is averaging 21 points per game and has 3.6 3-pointers per night.

 

Earlier this season, he scored his 1,000th career varsity point in a Hoosac Valley uniform.

 

The Hurricanes learn their next opponent on Tuesday, when No. 40 St. John Paul II of Hyannis visits Hyde Park's Academy of the Pacific Rim in the play-in round.

 

The iBerkshire.com Athlete of the Week is sponsored by Bedard Bros.