Thompson, Generals Down Wahconah
DALTON, Mass. – Pittsfield’s Bri’awn Thompson Wednesday exploded for 30 points over the last three quarters to create a three-way tie atop the Berkshire County League standings.
Thompson scored 15 points in the third quarter alone to propel the Generals to a 73-53 win over Wahconah.
The victory avenged a loss from late December and created a logjam in the league standings, where Drury, Pittsfield and Wahconah each is 6-2 with two league games left.
Thompson did not make a mark in the scorebook until two minutes remained in the second quarter, but he took the game over from there: hitting two 3-pointers and driving the lane for a buzzer-beater that gave the Generals a 33-25 lead at half-time.
“It was actually great,” Thompson said of the night. “My teammates pushing me, scoring the ball, bringing the energy from the offensive and defensive sides. They were just pushing me to score and play to my fullest potential. It’s been a while since I’ve had a good game like this.
“So I just knew this game was going to be the game I was going to turn up in.”
His coach knew it, too.
“I could tell in his eyes in the locker room,” Jerome Edgerton said. “I walked into the locker room, and I saw him just sitting there by himself, and I knew he was ready to perform at a high level. He puts in the work every day. He’s an ultra competitor, so he knew he wasn’t playing his best basketball.”
Neither were the Generals, who came in having lost their last three, including a league game against Monument Mountain.
But that loss came a week to the day before Wednesday night, and Edgerton said the layoff helped.
“We needed the break, honestly,” Edgerton said after going 1-3 in five days. “Last week, coming off Hoophall, we had a tough go there, tough stretch, just trying to figure out what was going on. And I just think the boys needed to reset.
“We needed that time apart, honestly, and we came back together. We had a day of practice because of the storm. And we got to work yesterday, mentally, really, that’s what it was.”
Quincy Abellie got off to a fast start in Pittsfield’s return to the floor, scoring 11 of his 16 points in the first quarter.
He scored twice in transition, and Braiden Sullivan (12 points) hit a pair of 3-pointers in a 9-0 run to end the quarter and leave Pittsfield with a 17-14 lead.
But Wahconah hung in to start the second, tying the game on a pair of free throws from Aidan Hagmaier (11 points) with 3 minutes, 5 seconds left in the half.
Pittsfield answered with a 10-2 run that included Thompson’s first eight points and was interrupted only by a basket in the post from Sam McLaughlin (team-high 14 points).
The first time the Generals played Wahconah, they had a 10-point half-time lead but ended up losing in overtime on a night when Pittsfield seemed to settle for 3-pointers in the second half.
This time, it was a different PHS squad that protected and extended its eight-point half-time advantage.
“After that first loss, we went to a different kind of approach how we want to play the game,” Edgerton said. “We still get our 3s up, but it’s the way we do it. We don’t just come down, one pass and chuck or come down, keep the ball dribbling and shoot it. It’s more so our inside-out approach or outside-in. We really make sure that we’re executing.
“We’re shooting a high field goal percentage, and we’re taking good shots.”
Abellie scored in the post off a feed from Sullivan to start the second half. Then Thompson got a steal and layup in transition, and Sullivan and Noah Smalls each made a 3 in a 10-3 spurt that opened the second half and extended Pittsfield’s lead to 43-28.
The Generals went up by as many as 23 on a pair of Thompson free throws with 1:20 left in the third, and Wahconah never got closer than 18 points the rest of the way.
“We couldn’t stop anybody tonight,” Wahconah coach Dustin Belcher said. “Credit to them. They played very well. I thought they did a good job getting what they wanted from the opening tip to the final horn. We just had no answers defensively.
“There’s no excuses, but I think we struggled with legs a little bit tonight. … The guys were playing hard. We had a lot of miscues, a lot of turnovers. It felt like we missed shots that we’ve been making all year.”
Wahconah was playing on the second half of a back-to-back after taking a road trip to Auburn that had been rescheduled due to Monday’s storm.
Things do not get any easier when Berkshire County co-leader Drury comes to Dalton on Friday.
“It’s a grind, right,” Belcher said. “It’s a big game. Drury is a very good team. I just talked to the guys in [the locker room. Obviously, we’re disappointed, but it’s all about how we respond. We’ve got to come back to work.”
Pittsfield (9-5) is off again until Wednesday when it hosts Hoosac Valley, the first of two remaining league games. The other comes at the Boys and Girls Club against Taconic on Feb. 6.
Wahconah’s remaining league games are Friday against the Blue Devils and the following Friday at Monument Mountain.