HATFIELD — The Hopkins Academy boys basketball team had three players score in double figures against Smith Academy Monday night.
Seniors John Earle and Justin Ciaglo had 19 points apiece while Jon Morrison finished with 22 as the Golden Hawks won, 83-54, and qualified for the Western Massachusetts Division 4 Tournament.
Hopkins opened the game and scored 10 straight points before Smith Academy called timeout with 4 minutes, 27 seconds left in the first quarter. Smith got on the board with just 3:16 left in the first after a 3-pointer from Carter Woodward. The Golden Hawks continued to control the quarter and took a 25-10 lead into the second.
“What worked for us was just moving the ball and in spurts playing like I thought we should have,” Hopkins coach Angelo Thomas said.
The Golden Hawks started the second quarter just as strong after a jumper from John Earle and five straight points from Jonathan Morrison gave Hopkins a 32-10 lead with just over five minutes left in the half. The Golden Hawks continued to play strong defense and kept the Falcons from scoring until 4:10 left when Matt Bouley hit a 3.
Smith’s offense started to pick up when a jumper from Bouley forced Hopkins to call its first timeout of the game with just over five minutes remaining in the third quarter.
“We focused more on effort and just leaving it out on the floor and getting better and trying to chip away and knowing that it’s one possession at a time and really focus on trying to win the first four minutes of the half,” Smith coach Matt Zerneri said. “I’m happy with the effort and they way we executed in the second half.”
Even with the Falcons’ offense picking up, Hopkins was able to maintain a 59-40 lead going into the fourth quarter.
“Once they started coming back we knew we had to get back in the game and start really playing,” Ciaglo said.
Woodward finished with a team-high 12 points for the Falcons (4-8). Brett Gratz and Jack Zigmont each had 11 points. had 11 points.
The three-time Western Mass. champion Golden Hawks are 10-1.
“We still have a long ways, we still have nine more games before the end of the season so we have two big games coming up against Frontier and Monson so we are going to start preparing for those games,” Thomas said.