BArT Wolfpack Reaches League Final
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. -- Midway through the third quarter of Tuesday's River Valley Athletic League final, the two best players on the BArT basketball team took over.
Brandon and Issac Bamba took turns scoring on six straight possessions for a 12-0 BArT run that opened up a 21-point lead en route to a 67-48 win.
After the first eight points of the run, visiting Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion called a timeout with 3 minutes, 42 seconds left in the period.
Out of the timeout, Brandon Bamba mae a steal in BArT's defensive end, took the ball the other way, made a spin move in the lane and set up his brother for an easy bucket.
Isaac made the steal on PVCICS' next possession and ended up feeding Brandon in transition to give BArT its biggest lead of the game, 40-19.
The Wolfpack went on to lead by as many as 23 in the fourth quarter before settling for the 19-point margin of victory.
Isaac Bamba finished with a game-high 27 points, and Brandon Bamba scored 19 as top-seeded BArT earned the right to host Thursday's RVAL Championship game at 4 p.m. at the Armory.
Both Bambas dominated the second half, combining for 30 of BArT's 39 points after intermission.
But to say this win was all about the Bamba brothers would be a gross overstatement.
In the first half, BArT got contributions throughout the lineup, including eight rebounds and five blocks and five points from William Peets and five points and nine boards from Owen Brady.
And as much as BArT's offense fired up the crowd after half-time, it was the defense that was the story early, holding the Dragons to just 15 points in the first half.
"Our defense was really tough, we worked the ball around, we knew they were going to target our two top players, so we really practiced getting everyone else involved in the game," BArT coach Robert Daugherty said.
"I don't know who score the most, but we scored a lot of stuff on fast break stuff, so that's not really a good indication of how well we moved the ball around."
After leading by just two points after the first quarter, BArT created some separation in the second.
Peets scored twice on drives to the basket to cap a 6-0 spurt to open the quarter and give the Wolfpack a 17-9 edge.
Then, after the Dragons got a bucket, the teams were scoreless for three minutes before Brady put back an offensive rebound and drew a foul. He completed the three-point play to make it 20-11.
Two possessions later, Brandon Bamba dropped a 3-pointer to give BArT its first double-digit lead. It ended up leading by 13, 28-15, at the break.
Not a bad start for a team that sat its two top scorers to open the game.
Daugherty said he was toying with the idea of not starting the Bambas anyway, but when the brothers missed a practice, it gave him all the reason he needed to throw PVCICS a curve ball at the tipoff.
"It gave me an excuse to try to play a little psychology," Daugherty said of the Bambas' missed practice. "I was thinking about doing that, but I was also really scared to do that. But, yeah, I didn't mind that they were not expecting it."
The bonus is that by sitting Isaac and Brandon Bamba, he sent a message to the rest of the team that they could be trusted against the Dragons, who knocked off BArT last winter in the semi-finals.
"[PVCICS] didn't really pull away away without them there those first few minutes," Daugherty said. "We sort of played even with them, so I was like: We're going to have a good game.
"Now, [BArT's role players] know they can go in and substitute and give our guys fresh legs and still hold their own. I mean, Kayla [Saunders] went in and scored the first bucket of the game, driving in the middle. ... Now, they have more experience."
