NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Drury boys basketball team escaped with a narrow win over Pioneer, 47-45, Friday night. 

 

Louis Guilotte led the way with 23 points, while Sam Moorman added eight and Darrin Vidal with six. 

 

The scenario is simple, win two of their next three games and Drury qualifies for the state tournament. The way they started the game tonight showed they were up for the task. After losing by 15 on the road earlier this year Drury was ready for some home cooking to get them over the line tonight.

 

The Blue Devils started off with high intensity on the defensive end and it dictated the flow on offense. The ball movement from Drury early on was great getting inside for easy baskets at the rim. Louis Guilotte found himself a sweet spot at the foul line area and really asserted himself in the first half.

 

Drury took an 11-9 lead after one quarter of play, but it was the second quarter that made the difference in this one. Drury outscored Pioneer 19-5 in the quarter largely in part to Louis Guilotte who had eight of his 23 in the second alone. Darrin Vidal also hit a couple big 3s in the warted to help stretch the lead, but it was the defense once again that really set the tone. 

 

“We have not played well defensively,” Drury coach Jack Racette said. “We’ve worked on it and we got out of our full court pressure. We didn’t extend the floor so we only had to guard in the half court which is a lot easier for us after extending the defense for 16 games.”

 

Drury finished the half with a 30-14 lead and they looked like they were going to run away with this in the second half. After a slow start to the half getting outscored 5-0 right out of the gates, Drury settled in with back to back threes from Louis and Darrin to keep Pioneer at bay.

 

They traded baskets throughout the quarter and maintained that 14-point lead going into the fourth. The road team, Pioneer, didn't give up and made things interesting late in the game as Drury looked to take the air out of the ball too early, letting them right back in it.

 

Pioneer cut the lead to five points with three minutes to go and continued to pressure Drury full court to try and complete the comeback. Drury not only struggled from the field but especially from the free throw line missing six straight free throws late in the game keeping it a one possession game with 1:42 left to go.

 

After a big stop on defense, Guilotte finally knocked down a couple of free throws to give them a five point lead again, and Pioneer launched a desperation 3 at the buzzer to cut it to a two-point loss. Drury was outscored 20-8 in the quarter, but did enough to keep their playoff hopes alive as they take on rival Hoosac Valley next week, at home. 

 

“We were on a seven-game road trip, it was like every night we were catching another bus for an hour-plus ride,” Racette said. “We’re back home for three in a row so it was nice, we were 3-4 on the road, but it's tough to win on the road and Pioneer found that out tonight. You go to someone else’s gym, you're going to get a lot more energy and our guys played with a lot of energy tonight.”