LONGMEADOW — The Longmeadow boys basketball workforce nabbed its finest win of the season Wednesday night time, and it got here in convincing style.
The Lancers held Valley Wheel-leading Sci-Tech to a season-low level whole en path to a dominant 60-33 victory at Robert D’Agostino Gymnasium.
Longmeadow improved to 10-3 total, 5-2 within the Valley Wheel with the victory. The 10th win secures a berth into the MIAA Division II state event, and the Lancers moved inside one sport of first place within the league behind the Cybercats (9-4, 6-1).
“This is our signature win of the year,” mentioned Longmeadow coach Pat Murphy. “Anytime you beat a Sci-Tech team, that is a really good team and a really good program so it’s good for us. We played last Wednesday against Pope (Francis) and we had a chance to make an impression and we didn’t do that (in a 63-39 loss). And I think that ate away at some of our kids for the past week and they wanted to make a change, and tonight was their opportunity to do that.”
Longmeadow avenged an early-season 48-37 loss to Sci-Tech when the groups performed in Springfield again on Dec. 18. The Cybercats hadn’t misplaced to a Western Massachusetts program since their season opener in opposition to Pope Francis.
“I think our defense is our calling card but I felt like everybody had cinder blocks in their legs today, and they just couldn’t move laterally,” Sci-Tech coach Shalka Rivera mentioned. “The effort and the energy just wasn’t there. But that’s kudos to what Longmeadow did. They took us out of our game plan, and I have to do a better job finding a way to prepare them, to get them energized and ready to go from the jump.”
Longmeadow did a pleasant job dealing with Sci-Tech’s stress by way of the ball-handling of Joe Martinez, Jacob Millet, Sam Tyson and Brody Harrington, amongst others. While the Cybercats like to hurry groups up defensively, the Lancers took care of the basketball and methodically went by way of their offensive units to get attractiveness on the hoop.
“I was really proud of our guards and how they handled the pressure that (Sci-Tech) provided us,” Murphy mentioned. “And that hasn’t always been the case this year. But tonight it was. I think being in our own gym helped. We took care of their ball pressure all night, and made the right plays with the basketball and showed on the scoreboard.”
Millet tallied a game-high 20 factors, and the workforce’s main scorer (12.9 ppg) mentioned it was good to get a win in opposition to a top-tier foe after the powerful loss to Pope Francis.
“It’s a pretty big win, especially after our loss against Pope (last week),” the senior mentioned. “I think it gets us back on track for the rest of the season after we lost to (Sci-Tech) early in the season.”
Jackson Passonno continued to make his presence identified by way of his outdoors capturing, because the junior guard hit a trio of three-pointers and completed with 14 factors within the win. Passonno has drained 30 triples on the season.
Alex Sverrisson made it three Lancers in double figures with 14 factors, as a balanced scoring effort continues to be an indicator for this 12 months’s membership.
“We have 14 guys on the roster and we have a lot of very talented offensive basketball players,” Murphy mentioned. “Like I tell the guys in the locker every night, it’s 14 against five. And when we play that way and we’re unselfish and we’re passing the ball and doing the right stuff, 14 beats five every night.”
Longmeadow led 15-9 after one quarter and 24-21 at halftime earlier than an 11-1 third-quarter spree helped create separation. Sverrisson scored eight factors through the run, which put the hosts up double digits for the primary time all night time.
Isaiah Rodriguez halted the run with a bucket and the Cybercats ultimately trailed simply 35-29 with 2:20 to play within the third.
But it was all Longmeadow from that time on, because the Lancers closed issues out by way of a 25-4 run, limiting Sci-Tech to only a single area aim within the fourth quarter.
“We talked about it in the locker room, we just talk about effort and energy. Just working hard, continuing to play,” Rivera mentioned. “It’s not what we didn’t do, it’s kudos to what Longmeadow did. They were physical and they took us out of our offense and it’s more or less, we just didn’t show up. We stayed on the bus, and we have to do a better job of that. I have to do a better job of coaching that energy and getting the guys ready to play.”
Marcus Jones’ eight factors paced the guests, whereas Vashon McNeil added six factors for Sci-Tech.
Longmeadow’s schedule doesn’t get any simpler with Valley Wheel video games in opposition to Minnechaug and Amherst up subsequent earlier than highway journeys to play non-conference video games at Holyoke and West Springfield. Murphy mentioned he’s happy with the development of his workforce, understanding the stakes are solely going up over the course of the subsequent month.
“I think you just continue to try to get better every day,” he mentioned. “That’s what I try to preach to the kids about just getting better every play and every day. And if you do that, good things will happen at the end of the year.
“We’re not a team that has historically been very good in December. We don’t practice out of season, we can’t do anything in the fall because all our kids are playing soccer and football. So our first two weeks are usually ugly, our first month is usually ugly. But like I always say to the kids, they don’t put up banners for wins in December. So we try to work on everything as we go every day and see where we get come March.”
Sci-Tech appears to be like to bounce again with a highway journey to Northampton on Friday night time. The Cybercats nonetheless management their very own future within the Valley Wheel title race.
“I’ll go back, I’ll look at the film, I’ll see what we weren’t doing individually and as a group not communicating,” Rivera mentioned. “We take these lessons because we’re trying to prepare for down the road, right? If we have a game like this and we know the playoffs are physical, they’re tough, and the whistles are not gonna get blown. You’ve just got to learn how to play through it. And I don’t think we did a great job playing through the physicality.”