AMHERST — On a few occasions late in the regular season and in the Western Massachusetts basketball tournament, the Amherst boys basketball team found themselves scrambling to make up late-game deficits. It happened once again Friday night in their Division 2 state tournament opener, but the Hurricanes didn’t have the time or the effectiveness to finish off a comeback.
Dracut, the No. 27 seed in Division 2, made the trip west from the Merrimack Valley and posted one of the bigger shock upsets to date in the new-look state playoffs, picking off No. 6 Amherst, 59-51, in the Round of 32.
The Middies (15-9) used a powerful third quarter to outscore Amherst 24-12, building a double-digit cushion, and maintained their lead through the Hurricanes’ late attempts to hit back.
“We’re going to regret that third quarter,” said Amherst coach Jamahl Jackson. “We’ve been through it a few times in our recent games. We played some great defense in the fourth quarter to try to get back in the game. I’m proud of this team and our nine seniors. Six of them have been with me since I started in 2019. Now we’ll have to do it with a much younger team.”
Dracut led 56-43, its largest lead of the evening, with 6:01 left after Adrian Torres dropped in a 3-pointer. The Middies wouldn’t score another field goal; in fact, Dracut was held scoreless for just over five minutes until 57.4 seconds remained. Nathan Boateng made both ends of a one-and-one at that point to make it a 58-51 game, then Mitchell Cripps added one clinching free throw with 7.1 seconds to play.
Amherst rallied back slowly after falling down by 13. Isa Castro-McCauley hit a mid-range baseline jumper and Zayd Sadiq scored six straight points to pull the Hurricanes back to within 56-51 with 1:25 remaining. Dracut left the door slightly ajar by missing 5-of-8 free throws in the last 1:53, but the hosts couldn’t capitalize.
Torres fired in a game-high 26 points to lead Dracut. Christopher Ouko (five 3-pointers) finished with 17 and Cripps with seven. The Middies advanced to face the Holyoke-Bedford winner in next week’s Division 2 Round of 16.
For Amherst, which concluded its year at 15-6, Evan Stewart bagged five 3-pointers of his own and led the way with 22. Sadiq added 11 points and Castro-McCauley contributed nine.
The Hurricanes led 16-11 after one quarter and 28-27 at halftime, building several five-point leads along the way. Stewart (16 first-half points) and Torres (15) had a nice mano-a-mano duel going through the first 16 minutes.
But the Middies came out of the locker room gunning to start the third quarter. Ouko rammed in four 3-pointers in just over three minutes, while the ‘Canes answered with a pair of treys by Stewart. Ouko’s last 3-pointer snapped a 38-38 tie and Torres scored twice driving the lane, good for a 7-0 Dracut run, a 45-38 lead for the Middies, and an Amherst timeout with 3:47 left.
Brandon Stewart stopped the run with a layup for the Hurricanes, but Dracut scored the next six, thanks to offensive putbacks from Boateng and Cripps, then two foul shots by Cripps, to go up 51-40 after three.