McCormack Returns, Leads Mounties Past Wahconah

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires.com Sports
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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. -- It is hard to say who was more excited about seeing Sean McCormack back on the floor for the Mount Greylock boys basketball team on Thursday night -- McCormack himself or everyone else associated with the Mounties program.
 
Either way, they were all smiles when the game was over as well after McCormack scored a team-high 14 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in leading Mount Greylock to a 52-50 win over Wahconah at MCLA’s Amsler Campus Center Gymnasium.
 
“I was just so happy,” McCormack said of the moment he got the call to come off the bench with 6 minutes, 2 seconds left in the first quarter. “I’ve been out for six weeks, and I’ve just been chomping at the bit -- supporting the team at every game, but I don’t like being on the bench. I like being out there, 110 percent every play. There’s no other way for me.
 
“It was just amazing being out there. I love it.”
 
Midway through the fourth quarter, the Mounties were all loving it when McCormack converted a Sam Dils assist to finish a press break and give Mount Greylock a 48-38 lead.
 
But Wahconah rallied to make it a one-possession game in the closing seconds and had the ball with 11 seconds left after a Tim Clayton rebound.
 
But after a turnover in the paint at the other end, Mount Greylock had a chance to ice the game, inbounding the ball from under Wahconah’s basket with 2.6 seconds on the clock.
 
That’s when McCormack -- who is headed to St. Lawrence University in the fall to play football -- made like a wide receiver and caught a deep pass from Brady Foehl, allowing the Mounties to run out the clock, improve to 6-6 and avenge a 30-point December loss in Dalton.
 
McCormack did not play in that first meeting. In fact, Thursday was his first appearance in uniform since the Mounties’ first game of the season.
 
“It’s been an emotional first half,” Mount Greylock coach Bob Thistle said. “There’s no excuses. The kids come to work every day. We brought a shovel here to practice early, literally, to show how hard we have to work.
 
“We don’t have a gym [due to construction on the Williamstown campus], and we’ve had one of the top players in the league and in Western Mass out for six weeks. It meant a lot for the team to have him back. And he did a great job tonight on the floor. But what he’s done on the sidelines and what he’s done in the gym … It’s his leadership skills that he’s learning through this adversity. Nobody wanted it to be this way -- just like with Pat Storie last year. But it is what it is.”
 
The Mounties managed to go 5-6 in McCormack’s absence because of the contributions from players who had to step up and help fill the void.
 
“Alex Backiel, he stood in and started,” Thistle said. “Some games, he’s had numbers. Some games, he hasn’t. But he’s played hard-nosed defense. He’s been a senior leader.”
 
On Thursday, the Mounties held Wahconah (6-5) to just 30 points through the first three quarters.
 
“We just presented them with a 1-3-1 tonight, and my job was to serve as the perimeter and get out on shooters,” Backiel said. “I think we did a good job on stopping shots from outside as a team effort.”
 
Wachonah got a lot of its points on second-chance opportunities. It made only a couple of 3-point shots and got 17 points and 11 boards from Tom Burris before he fouled out in the final minute.
 
The Mounties connected on eight shots from behind the 3-point arc -- two each from Backiel and Toby Foehl (12 points) and three from Brady Foehl, who finished with 11 points and nine boards. Cole Wojtkowski and Dils added five and four assists, respectively.
 
The Mounties were up by four after a low-scoring first half, but opened the third quarter with a 6-0 run to open their first double-digit lead at 28-18.
 
The score stayed in that range right through the middle of the fourth quarter.
 
Brady Foehl scored in the post to give the Mounties their last 10-point lead at 50-40.
 
Wahconah answered with a bucket from Kevin Huban (eight points), and after the teams traded empty trips, Tom O’Connor put back an offensive rebound with 37.9 on the clock to make it 50-44.
 
The Mounties then went to the line and missed a pair -- starting a run of 2-for-8 at the foul line in the last 34 seconds of the game.
 
Meanwhile, Burris converted both ends of a one-and-one and Huban knocked down a pair to make it 51-48 with 23 seconds left.
 
Backiel was fouled with 21 seconds left and made one of two to give Mount Greylock a four-point lead. Antwaun Fye (eight points) drove the lane for Wahconah to get it to 52-50, and a quick foul sent the Mounties to the line with 11.9 on the clock.
 
They missed both, and Clayton got the rebound, setting the stage for the closing seconds.
 
“Absolutely,” Thistle said when asked if his team was looking at extra free throw shooting practice. “It’s tough missing free throws. But when that happens, you just want to be the next guy up there because what are you going to do -- in life, or, in this case, the free throw. Alex [Backiel] hit the big one to make it a two-possession game. It’s just a great team win.”
 
Mount Greylock goes to Lenox on Tuesday.
 
Wahconah goes to Southwick on Saturday.
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