CHICOPEE — John and Seth Bella-Hunter towered over Pope Francis.
Amherst’s 6-foot-6 twin seniors to be anchored both ends of the floor in the Jack Troy basketball league Division 1 championship game Tuesday at St. Stanislaus Elementary School, as Amherst won 67-36.
“We had a height advantage with me and my brother, so we looked to attack down low,” John Bella-Hunter said.
He led Amherst with 19 points, 12 rebounds and six blocks.
Three blocks came in the first half and resembled volleyball spikes more than any basketball play.
“I think I’m the better shot blocker, but today he had it going,” Seth Bella-Hunter said. “He had all the blocks. That’s good to see him going, it got me going, too.”
Seth Bella-Hunter also finished with a double-double of 11 points and 11 rebounds while dishing out three assists.
He hit the second of his two 3-pointers with 2 minutes, 13 seconds left.
The game stopped being competitive long before that point.
Amherst jumped out to a 20-5 lead in the game’s first 15 minutes.
The game featured two 20-minute halves and a running clock outside of timeouts.
All seven Amherst players scored.
Point guard Tajahn Joyner added eight points, while Tate Rietkerk had 10.
Khaylen Mahdi added seven, while Liam Kelly scored four and Jazdeal Roman had seven.
“Our bench players knocked down a couple shots on the perimeter and played great defense that turned into offense,” Joyner said.
Amherst played without Meikkel Murray or his younger brother Meikyle Murray.
They’re staying with family in New York for the rest of the summer but will return to an Amherst team confident it can win in multiple ways.
“They’re really big for us. I think a lot of teams doubt us when we don’t have them,” Joyner said. “It just shows that our whole team can really play. It’s not just one, two, three, four people.”
One of Amherst’s other leaders last season moved from the floor to the bench.
Devonte’ McCall coached the team, advising players he passed the ball to five months earlier.
“Being able to coach them and boss them around was really nice, but they’re really easy to coach. They listen really well,” McCall said.
He gleaned his coaching style from one powerful influence: his father, Zack McCall.
“My dad coached me my whole life. I just tried to coach like he does with tough love and praise the hustle stuff,” Devonte McCall said.
McCall will spend a postgraduate season at the Westminster School.
He’s still going to keep a close eye on his Hurricanes from Connecticut, though.
“I’m going to be texting them a lot making sure they’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing,” McCall said. “I’ll be really surprised if they don’t go all the way this year. They have all the tools to do it.”
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com.