PITTSFIELD, Mass. – The fifth-seeded Pittsfield boys basketball team dominated the early stages of Thursday’s Division 3 State Tournament opener.
But Greater New Bedford Voc ended the second quarter with a 9-0 spurt to get within 13 and trimmed that margin all the way down to three points late in the third quarter.
Pittsfield stopped the bleeding with a 3-pointer from Marcello Arienti, and kept it at least a two-possession the rest of the way en route to a 67-51 win.
Makai Shepardson scored a game-high 21 points, and Carter Mungin had a double-double with 19 points and 12 rebounds as Pittsfield improved to 17-4 and earned a home game in the Sweet 16 against the winner of Friday’s game between No. 12 Hudson and No. 21 Bishop Stang.
Shepardson said focusing on defense was the key to turning the tide at the end of the third quarter.
“We all had to stick together and stay disciplined,” Shepardson said. “That was basically it. We had to stay in our lockdown defense.”
Greater New Bedford scored 26 of its 51 points in a seven-minute stretch that started late in the second quarter.
With 3:05 left in the third, a 3-pointer for the visitors made it a 43-40 game.
But Arienti immediately answered at the other end. And after the teams traded buckets, a Mungin bucket in transition and a Shepardson drive to the bucket gave Pittsfield a 53-45 cushion going to the fourth quarter.
The Generals then held the Bears to six points in the fourth quarter to put the game away.
In the first quarter, Mungin scored eight points to help Pittsfield take a 21-8 lead.
Greater New Bedford led for the last time at 4-2, before Pittsfield scored nine straight, including an and-one from Mungin.
Pittsfield stretched its lead to 20 points with a 10-0 run early in the second quarter. Keanu Arce-Jackson (10 points) capped the run with a putback in transition to give his team a 31-11 bulge midway through the quarter.
But then Pittsfield went cold on offense, and Greater New Bedford rallied to get within 13, 36-23, at half-time.
Pittsfield, which has won eight of its last nine, earned the right to play for a berth in the state quarter-finals one year after going 6-16 with a loss in the first round of the state tourney.
