HOLYOKE — The No. 13 Holyoke boys basketball team entered the second half of its MIAA Division 2 Round of 32 matchup with No. 20 Wakefield ahead 46-32. Although the Purple Knights felt great about where they stood, starting forward Chauncey Ruiz, who put up 10 first-quarter points to kickstart the night, had four fouls.

Head coach Juan Maldonado knew 14 points wasn’t going to be enough to hold off the Warriors’ high-powered offense – which includes the state’s leading scorer in junior guard Jack Millward – for an entire half. So Holyoke amplified its intensity on the defensive end, picking up full court and playing every passing lane.

After trading buckets to keep their lead at 14 points, it was all Purple Knights. Jordan King-Perilli and Calvin Godbolt combined to score 15 straight points, and before Wakefield could blink Holyoke went on a 27-2 run to end the third quarter.

That stretch of play ignited a raucous home crowd and helped the Purple Knights to a 93-56 blowout win on Thursday night at John “Jinx” O’Connor Gymnasium.

Holyoke advanced to the Round of 16 to play the winner of Friday’s game between No. 4 Oliver Ames and No. 29 Archbishop Williams.

“We watched seven or eight different games on [Wakefield], and we drew up a good scouting report,” Maldonado said. “To watch the boys execute that, it feels really good.”

The first play out of halftime was an Aden Cabrera steal and fastbreak layup. He then came down and delivered a dime to Cameron Teresa for two before tossing a no-look feed to King-Perilli on the next Holyoke possession. One more Cabrera assist found King-Perilli wide open for 3. The ball swished through, and that’s when the Purple Knights began their 25-point avalanche.

Millward only scored 13 points for Wakefield, splitting in half what he typically averages. Holyoke was physical with him, and sent double teams any time he turned his back to the defense. Everyone on the Purple Knights team understood the assignment. Shut down Millward, the rest of the Warriors offense goes with it. Godbolt had the primary duty of defending Millward, and he did a terrific job of making everything he did difficult.

“They have the top scorer in the state,” Maldonado said. “When we looked he had 569 points on the year, which is out of this world. I think he was averaging like 29 points per game. We knew a lot of their offense was going to come through [Millward], and they had a couple of other guys who play their role really well. So we looked to make it difficult for him to score… and we did that.”

Holyoke scored 25 points in the first quarter, Ruiz setting the tone with his aforementioned 10. The hosts then followed that up with 21 more in the second, none better than Cabrera’s ankle-breaker that sent a Wakefield defender flying before he set his feet and knocked down a triple. The Paper City crowd erupted, something it did consistently all night long.

After two high-scoring frames in the first half, the Knights backed it up with a 33-spot in the third, officially blowing the game open. From there, Holyoke’s reserves finished the job in the fourth. Whether it was Astin Chapman Castro losing a Warriors defender with a pump fake before knocking down a shot or Avantaey Rivera splashing a 3, everybody joined in the fun Thursday.

“It means the world to see those guys do their thing,” Cabrera said of Holyoke’s second unit. “They always work hard for us at practice. They may not get a lot of minutes every game, but they took care of business tonight when they got out there. They got the job done for us.”

Five different Holyoke players scored in double figures and a sixth added nine points in what was truly a balanced attack from the opening tip. Cabrera and King-Perilli each scored 17 for the Purple Knights, Jacob Andujar and Godbolt added 13 apiece, Ruiz scored a dozen and Julian Fasoli hit a trio of 3s to score nine points.

Maldonado recognized that not every game is going to go as smoothly on the offensive end as Thursday’s did, but said that Holyoke is at its best when a handful of players are scoring the ball.

It makes them nearly impossible to defend.

“That’s exactly what we preach,” Maldonado said. “We know we have guys that can average 20 easily, but we preach sharing the ball and moving the ball just to make it that much harder to guard us. Obviously the team we were playing tonight was really talented, but they had one scorer so it was easy for us to lock in and slow him down and then shut everyone else down. That’s why we try to preach finding the hot hand and moving the ball.”

It’s unlikely Holyoke will get another home game this season. The only way the Purple Knights can host is if Oliver Ames gets upset on Friday. Last season, Holyoke had two state tournament games at home before hitting the road in the Elite Eight. That won’t be the case this winter, but their home crowd is one of the best across the Commonwealth.

Picking up one last win in front of the Purple Knights faithful was important to both the players and Coach Maldonado.

“We’re always trying to win at home in front of our fans,” Cabrera said. “They help us a lot. They always have our back and it just feels good being at home.”

Div. 5 Round of 32

No. 3 Granby 82, No. 30 Bartlett 72 — NeNe Fernandez put on an absolute clinic Thursday night, pouring in a Hampshire-County-season-high 47 points to lead the Rams past a pesky upset-minded Bartlett team at home. Fernandez went a stellar 21-for-23 from the free-throw line in the win, including 18-for-19 in the second half alone. His fourth-quarter shooting from the line helped keep Bartlett out of reach late in the game.

Granby will now play the winner of Friday’s game between No. 14 Lee and No. 19 Rockport in the Round of 16 next week.

Riley Goodhind scored 13 points for the Rams, Raymond D. Colon tossed in nine while Sawyer Clarke and Cody White scored four points apiece. Cody Breault (three) and Gavin Moreno (two) scored their points in the first quarter which helped the Rams out to a 20-14 start.

Granby only led 55-49 entering the final eight minutes, but it out-scored Bartlett 27-23 in the quarter to earn the tournament win.