Taconic Upsets Wahconah, Sets Semi-Final Against Pittsfield

DALTON, Mass. – The Taconic boys basketball team Wednesday completed a late-season resurgence with a dramatic, 62-60 win over second-seeded Wahconah in the quarter-finals of the Western Massachusetts Class B Tournament.

 

Charlie Driscoll hit 6 3-pointers to score 19 points, and Evan Roccabruna and Quincy King added 17 points apiece as the Thunder won for the first time in three tries against Wahconah and picked up its third win in four games.

 

It also set up Round 3 against city rival Pittsfield, a 62-58 winner over Frontier in their regional quarter-final on Wednesday night.

 

The rubber match in the city series is currently posted for 7 p.m. on Friday night for a berth in the Class B final.

 

On Wednesday, Taconic bounced back from a 10-point deficit late in the second quarter and went blow-for-blow against Wahconah throughout the second half, which saw Kamaris DeWitt hit a pair of free throws with 19 seconds left to give the Thunder a 62-58 lead.

 

Cooper Calvert (14 points) drove to the basket for a score to get Wahconah within two with 8 seconds left, and after Taconic missed a pair of free throws with 7.3 seconds on the clock, the home team had time to get a desperation shot from the logo that hit the front of the rim.

 

“All year, we struggled finishing off games – third quarters, fourth quarters,” Roccabruna said. “That PHS game [a Taconic win on Friday] taught us how to finish these games out.

 

 

“We went into these games knowing teams could have been better than us, record-wise. But we knew that, by heart and by us being who we are, nobody was going to beat us.”

 

Jake Wasuk and Aidan Hagmaier led Wahconah with 16 points apiece. Hagmaier also grabbed 10 rebounds to finish with a double-double.

 

Wasuk drove the lane with about two minutes left in the second half to give Wahconah the largest lead of the night for either team, 36-26.

 

But Taconic scored the next 10 points.

 

Roccabruna got it started with a 3-pointer assisted by Jalen Hamilton. And then Roccabruna drove the right wing to get the margin down to five points.

 

With 10 seconds left in the half, Taconic scored three points at the line thanks to a common foul and a technical foul against Wahconah, getting within two at 36-34, going into the locker room.

 

Roccabruna started the second half by driving to the hole and getting to the line, converting both shots to tie the game, and no one led by more than six points the rest of the way.

 

Wahconah took its last lead when Wasuk set up Hagmaier in the post to make it 50-48 at the start of the fourth quarter.

 

Taconic answered with a triple from Driscoll to lead by one and never trailed again.

 

“He’s been really hot the second half of the season,” Taconic coach Bill Heaphy said of Driscoll. “He’s been shooting like that. I’m not surprised. And we want to go to him when we can because he can do that. All of them were big.”

 

Taconic took its second six-point lead of the game with 4 minutes, 20 seconds left when Roccabruna drove the left wing for a basket to make it 58-52.

 

But Wahconah rallied with six straight, tying it on Wasuk’s 3-pointer with 1:15 on the clock.

 

“I didn’t think our offense was the issue,” Wahconah coach Dustin Belcher said. “We didn’t make enough stops. We couldn’t stop dribble penetration. Drive-and-kick was killing us all night, despite us trying to make some adjustments.”

 

Taconic ran an isolation play for King on the left side, and he drove to the basket for a bucket to give his team a 60-58 lead with 45 seconds left.

 

After a Wahconah timeout with 38 seconds remaining, it got the ball into the post, but its shot was off the mark and King was there to get the rebound.

 

At the other end, DeWitt got to the foul line and scored his only points of the game with 19.1 seconds left to give Taconic a 62-58 lead.

 

Calvert drove the baseline for a basket to make it a two-point margin with 8 seconds left, and Wahconah put Taconic at the foul line with 7.3 on the clock.

 

Both shots missed the mark, and Wahconah called a timeout with 4.4 seconds left to set up a final shot.

 

“We tried to get either Calvert or Wasuk down hill and sent Sam [McLaughlin] to the rim, hoping to get a tip-in or, if he could seal the guy, we could through it inside and then [Jack DuCharme, eight points] would trail the play,” Belcher said.

 

“My big rule with them – we work on that stuff every day – is just make sure you get a shot. There’s nothing worse than not getting shots. Make sure you get a look. And we did. It wasn’t necessarily the best look.”

 

The best news for Wahconah (13-6) is that its post-season will continue. After playing a consolation game against an opponent to be determined, it will get ready for the Division 4 State Tournament.

 

“I just said to [the team], the 20th game might be the most important one of the season now, because … you don’t want to stew on it, and we don’t want to have this taste in our mouth,” Belcher said. “We can play a 20th game, get back on our feet and go to work.”

 

Taconic (6-12), which started the year on a three-game losing streak and never could get back to .500, likely will not reach the state tournament no matter what happens the rest of the way in the regional tourney.Taconic started the day as the 51st ranked team in D3; the top 32 teams plus squads with .500 records make the tournament.

 

But not matter what happens after the Western Mass tourney,  the Thunder is making the most of its chance to play in the Western Mass tourney.

 

“We just want to go as far as we can and see what happens,” Heaphy said. It’s a young team. … So everything we do, we’ll be able to draw on this experience-wise and go from there.”