CHESHIRE — For the opening couple minutes of action on Wednesday it looked like it was going to be a rock fight to decide who would move onto the Western Mass. Class D finals between the Hopkins Academy and Hoosac Valley boys basketball teams.
Both teams started slow offensively but once the Hurricanes saw a couple balls go through the rim, the game changed on a dime.
Hoosac found its rhythm on offense late in the first quarter, taking a 16-11 lead at the end of the frame. That rhythm carried into the second quarter, with the Hurricanes knocking down four 3’s and the Golden Hawks scoring just five points to fall behind 36-16 at the half.
Hoosac ended up making 11 3-pointer’s in the game, pulling away with a 71-43 victory in the Class D semifinals.
“They made shots,” Hopkins Academy coach Jim Hart said of Hoosac. “They’re a good team. They were on fire and weren’t missing. We couldn’t make any. We got the ball in the post and they didn’t go down. Against a team like this you have to make shots like that to win. Defensively we need to shape up and start tightening things up.”
Carson Meczywor was the engine that got Hoosac (14-6) going early. The senior scored 18 points in the first half and finished with 33 in the game. Joey McGovern had it going from deep for the Hurricanes, draining four 3’s and finishing with 14 points.
“We wanted to keep the ball out of Meczywor’s hands but he’s just so good,” Hart said. “He gets the ball, finds a spot and is so patient. I don’t know why anyone isn’t after him for preps or college, he could really help some teams.”
Conversely, Golden Hawks leading scorer Andrew Ciaglo was kept in check in the first half by the Hoosac defense. Ciaglo had four points in the first half and finished with 14 points, but was consistently hounded by the Hurricanes who didn’t make life easy on the senior.
“Andrew is really good and so good that he gets two or three guys on him,” Hart said. “He gets going when he goes downhill and comes off screens. They were getting on him and when he gave the ball up, two guys were always looking for him.”
Hopkins (15-5) held a 7-4 lead just past the midway point of the first quarter but that’s when the Hurricane offense took off. McGovern knocked down a 3 and Meczywor put in the final seven Hoosac points of the frame to give the Hurricanes a 16-11 lead.
The second quarter opened with a 3 from Hurricane Caleb Harrington. James Fitzgibbons and Cody West answered with baskets for the Golden Hawks but McGovern scored eight points and Meczywor scored five points while Hopkins was held to a single free throw by West the rest of the quarter to give Hoosac its 36-16 halftime lead.
The Hurricanes opened the second half on a 9-0 run behind five points from Frank Field and four points from Meczywor.
The Golden Hawks made a charge late in the quarter with Ciaglo scoring seven points and finding Cam Wade for a pair of scores in transition, but Harrington drained a late 3 and McGovern made a 3 at the buzzer to keep Hoosac ahead, 56-32, going into the fourth quarter.
Ciaglo knocked down a 3 while Wade, Earle, Tanner Selig and Pat Fitzgibbons scored for Hopkins in the fourth quarter.