Wahconah Gets Dominant Win over Taconic
DALTON, Mass. – The Wahconah boys basketball team built a 19-point lead going into half-time of Monday’s game against Taconic.
Then, Wahconah got down to business, blowing the Thunder off the floor with a 24-8 third quarter en route to a 79-47 win to improve to 3-0 this winter.
Jake Wasuk led the way with 20 points, and Jack Ducharme added 16 points and 10 rebounds for Wahconah, which opened the game on an 8-0 run and never trailed.
Aidan Hagmaier and Cooper Calvert each scored 11, and 10 different players got into the scorebook for Wahconah as both teams turned over the third quarter to their benches.
Wahconah could do that because of the way it dominated coming out of the locker room to extend its 42-23 advantage.
“One of my challenges to these guys tonight was, with six seniors, we had to respond like a senior-based team would respond,” Wahconah coach Dustin Belcher said. “And one of my challenges at half-time was: We have a lead, but to show we can play the next level, we’ve got to act like it’s the first quarter and go back to work. And I think we did a really good job of that. They responded well.”
Kalvin Phillips (six points) got the first bucket of the second half for Taconic, but Wahconah answered with 3-pointers from Wasuk and Sam McLaughlin to take its first 21-point lead of the night.
After Kamaris DeWitt scored in the post for the visitors, Wahconah went on another 8-0 run, the last two from Wasuk in transition, to take a 57-27 lead and force Taconic coach Bill Heaphy to call timeout.
“We got beat in every sense of the word,” Heaphy said afterward. “Dustin [Belcher] had his team ready to go, and we weren't ready for them.
“I don’t think we played with enough force, enough focus. We were just letting guys drive, and we didn’t seem to bother anybody. We were getting beat individually all night. Give credit to them. They ran their stuff, and they took advantage of our 'lackadaisicalness.' ”
Ducharme was a big reason why Wahconah was able to exploit the post in the first half, scoring 14 of his 16 points in the first two quarters.
“We’re not focused on [individual scoring],” DuCharme said. “Last game, we had five in double digits. We’re just going to keep moving. Whoever has the hot hand is who is going to score the most for our team.”
Quincy King scored 12 for Taconic, including 10 of its 23 first-half points.
After falling behind by 40 points midway through the fourth quarter, Taconic’s second unit was able to hold its own down the stretch against the Wahconah reserves. Stevan Miller and Jalen Hamilton each came off the bench to score five in the final eight minutes.
“I actually liked watching the last three minutes of the group that was in there,” Heaphy said. “At least they played hard.”
Taconic (0-2) will look for its first win on Thursday when Drury heads to Valentine Road on the heels of a heart-breaking one-point loss to Pittsfield on Monday night.
Wahconah (3-0) also has a Berkshire County League game on Thursday, hosting Hoosac Valley (2-0).
Belcher will be looking for another strong effort defensively against a Hurricane team that averaged 71 points per game in its first two outings. Wahconah is allowing just 51 points per game in the early going.
“I think the key to the game [Monday] was we did a good job on our closeouts,” Belcher said. “I thought we did a really good job boxing out, and we got some clean rebounds, which allowed us to get out and run a little bit.”