BELCHERTOWN – Agawam exerted its physicality on the offensive glass and in reaching the free throw line to defeat the Belchertown boys basketball team 55-50 on Tuesday in Belchertown.
The Brownies converted 17-of-26 free throws, while the Orioles attempted just eight.
“They pounded the glass,” Belchertown coach Matt Stenuis said of Agawam. “Every time they took a shot from the outside they had four guys crashing the glass, and we didn’t.”
Agawam (7-2) established an early lead with a 9-0 run that made it 12-6, but Belchertown’s Tyler McDonald splashed a 3 with 20 seconds to go in the first to cut it off. The Orioles eventually tied the game at 12 on a Henry Audette foul line jumper with 5 minutes, 30 seconds to halftime.
Joey Bianco gave Belchertown the lead back 16-15 with a layup over his shoulder with 3:04 to halftime, and Nathan Sadjak restored it again 18-17 with an up and under move 50 seconds after that. Sadjak led the Orioles with 21 points, his fourth 20-point game of the season.
“We just didn’t want to break down and let them go on a run,” Sadjak said. “Once they go on a run, it would be hard to come back from it.”
Agawam scored the last seven points of the first half to take a 24-18 lead into the third quarter. The Brownies pushed the lead to as many as 13 in the third when freshman point guard Elijah Maldonado drilled a buzzer-beater to make it 41-28. Maldonado was filling in for the starter Colin Smith, who was unavailable Tuesday, and finished with eight points.
“We’ve got a freshman coming out on the road playing in a big game for him, and I asked him to play a lot of minutes,” said Agawam coach Tim Sheehan, who coached at Granby for 22 years. “He was tough himself, but the guys trust him. That’s a big thing for us.”
Belchertown (6-2) scored the first four points of the fourth quarter to whittle the lead to single digits. Then McDonald (10 points) hit a 3 with 1:31 remaining that cut it to 53-46. The Orioles created some chaos and turnovers over the final 90 seconds but either couldn’t convert a shot to push the game further into doubt or turned the ball over.
Sadjak banked in 3 with five seconds left to make it a five-point game at the end.
“There were times, you know, they’re a little bit out of sync with panic a couple times with the ball. But you know, it’s part of the game. You just got to make the next play,” Stenuis said. “Give us another minute and a half, maybe we go to overtime.”
The loss was Belchertown’s second straight after a 6-0 start. The Orioles are still off to their best start since 2011, when the team opened the year with eight consecutive victories. They have their eyes set on a playoff run, and playing hard-fought games against Division 2 opponents like Agawam will only benefit them down the line.
“We want to play harder teams and teams that we’re going to see in the playoffs,” Sadjak said. “It’ll be good experience for us.”
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.