Wahconah Comes Back, Tops Pittsfield in OT
PITTSFIELD, Mass. – The Wahconah boys basketball team Monday overcame a 14-point third-quarter deficit, and Jake Wasuk scored nine points in overtime in a 67-60 win over Pittsfield.
Wasuk tied for game-high honors with 20 points, and he came up biggest in the clutch, driving to the basket for an and-one that gave Wahconah a 58-54 lead with 1 minute, 41 seconds left in OT and going 7-for-9 at the line in the extra period.
“He was struggling a little bit with his confidence early in the game, right?” Wahconah coach Dustin Belcher said. “He’s been able to kind of get what he wants this year, thus far. And I was really proud of the way he responded.
“Because he makes that big shot, and it’s certainly something to build on.”
Cooper Calvert scored 14 points, Jack DuCharme added nine, and Aidan Hagmaier finished with eight points and 12 rebounds as Wahconah improved to 5-0 overall and 3-0 in the Berkshire County League.
Pittsfield (2-1) did hold Wahconah under 70 points for only the second time this year, but that is mostly because the Generals only allowed three points in the first quarter and 15 in the first half en route to a 26-15 advantage in the locker room.
Belcher agreed that his offense looked static in the early going but was quick to credit Pittsfield’s “D.”
“Coach [Jerome] Edgerton did a good job getting his guys ready,” Belcher said. “And I’m proud of the way we responded. We were resilient. We missed some free throws. We missed some bunnies, little chippies next to the basket. And we stayed the course.
“And our defense kept us in the game as well.”
Because as anemic as Wahconah’s offense looked in the first half, Pittsfield was not able to take full advantage, managing just 10 points of its own in the first quarter.
In the second, things started to look up for the home team.
Quincy Abellie (eight points, 12 rebounds) scored his team’s first six points of the quarter, and Noah Smalls (11 points), Sam Touray (seven points) and Cam Mochon (11 points) each hit a 3-pointer to give the Generals an 11-point margin in the locker room.
They stretched it to 14 with 3-pointers from Briawn Thompson (20 points) and Mochon early in the third to go up 33-19 with 4 minutes, 35 seconds left in the period.
But from that point on, the quarter belonged to Wahconah, which mounted a 16-4 run to draw within two when Wasuk scored in transition to make it 37-35 heading to the fourth.
Meanwhile, at the other end, Pittsfield got a couple of triples in the third quarter but struggled to get anything going to the basket. The Generals made just two two-point field goals after half-time.
“I felt like part of it was our offensive execution,” Edgerton said. “We settled too much, and we stopped attacking the basket, we stopped looking inside. … And then that just allowed them to gain that momentum going back the other way.
“I think our offensive end with the ball not going to the hoop really affected our defensive discipline and game plan.”
While Pittsfield got all of its offense from behind the arc in the fourth quarter, Wahconah needed just one 3-pointer to match the Generals blow-for-blow.
Neither team led by more than five points after Smalls’ triple started the fourth quarter. Wahconah answered with six straight points to go ahead, and the lead changed hands five more times before regulation ended.
Smalls’ 3 from well beyond the arc put Pittsfield, 52-50, with 1:31 left on the clock. Calvert answered with a jumper from the right wing to tie it six seconds later.
Hagmaier hauled in the rebound of a missed Pittsfield 3 on the ensuing possession, but the Generals' defense denied Wahconah on its next possession, getting a shot clock violation with 36 seconds on the clock.
A foul on Wahconah with 5.7 seconds gave Pittsfield an inbounds from the right-wing sideline with the shot clock off and a tie game. The entry went to Abellie in the paint, but Wasuk, Hagmaier and Sam McLaughlin converged on the Pittsfield big man, who kicked to Thompson for a 3-point try that went off the back rim.
“[Abellie] was the first option,” Edgerton said. “Two or three guys collapsed on him. Kick out to Thompson. I’ll take that shot all day.”
A 3 from Calvert with an assist from Wasuk started Wahconah with a 55-52 lead in OT, and it never relinquished that margin.
After Wasuk’s and-one made it a 58-54 game, Pittsfield got one point back at the line with 1:29 remaining. But Wasuk was fouled on back-to-back possessions and made all four, pushing the lead to 62-55 with less than a minute left.
From there, Pittsfield was forced to start fouling, and Wahconah made five of eight from the line down the stretch to seal the win.
Wahconah, after playing five games in 12 days, gets a little time off to get ready for a non-league game at John J. Duggan on Dec. 30.
Pittsfield (2-1) is back at it on Saturday afternoon at home against Springfield International Charter.
Edgerton expressed confidence that his team, which entered Monday’s game having played half as many games as Wahconah, will learn from the experience as the season progresses.
“It’s a huge difference right now, are you kidding me?” he said of the experience gap between the two teams coming in. “We’re still probably 15 deep practices, and they’re already in their fifth game. So it’s a huge difference right now.
“We’ll be fine. I’m more analyzing right now. You know, it’s good to win early, but I worry about winning late.”