EASTHAMPTON – After coach Brian Miller says his piece at the end of practice, the Easthampton boys basketball team huddles close. The chant starts softly, calmly as a back and forth.
“All gas.”
“No brakes.”
It begins as a declaration of purpose and it’s volume and fervor builds.
“All Gas!”
“No Brakes!”
It eventually reaches a rallying cry: the Eagles aren’t slowing down, and they’re not stopping at just reaching the state championship game.
“ALL GAS!!”
“NO BRAKES!!”
Easthampton will face Watertown at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Springfield College looking for the program’s first title.
Senior guard Sopie Pek came up with the chant. “All gas, no brakes” not only describes the Eagles’ focus in reaching this point but their style of play. Pek articulated the Eagles’ style best after they took down Sutton in the state semifinals: “We are chaos.”
Easthampton presses from the opening tip and wants to live in transition. The Eagles eschew half court offense whenever possible.
“As a coach you kind of have to take what you have,” Easthampton coach Brian Miller said. “Their personalities and their skill sets, we can’t get into a half court set because we don’t have the size to play that way. So we gotta just go, go, go.”
The Eagles have the wheels to get there. Pek, Zade Jenkins and Darnel Whitley can sprint with anyone. Ant Moynihan provides spacing with knockdown 3-point shooting and can keep up on the fast break. Ronan Mottor is listed nominally at center at 6-foot-4 but moves well and can knock down 3s when they’re available.
“We try to speed up the game so they can’t keep up,” Moynihan said.
Watertown likely won’t try. The Red Raiders have only scored more than 70 points five times in 24 games. They’ve held opponents under 50 18 times.
“They’re a good, defensive team, they want to play down in the 50s,” Miller said. “We want to get that score going. Hopefully we can impose that on them.”
Easthampton cracked 70 points in 16 games this year and has averaged 78 per game in the postseason. The Eagles morphed into the best version of themselves for tournament play.
“It’s just fun to play,” Mottor said. “We have a bunch of fast kids, and we’re really well-conditioned, so it works perfectly for us.”
That conditioning allows Easthampton to play its style without reservations. The Eagles played six players against Sutton in the state semifinal, and only seven saw the floor against Monument Mountain in the Western Massachusetts final.
“We’ve got guys who can run all day. We played six guys and they (Sutton) were tired,” Miller said. “We were ready to play more. Our condition really stands out for us.”
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com.