High schools: Athol holds off late Turners Falls charge to win Hampshire League North opener (PHOTOS)

Athol’s Karim Thompson, right, dribbles under pressure from Turners Falls’ Kessick Beck during the visiting Bears’ Hampshire League North victory on Thursday night in Turners Falls.

Athol’s Karim Thompson, right, dribbles under pressure from Turners Falls’ Kessick Beck during the visiting Bears’ Hampshire League North victory on Thursday night in Turners Falls. STAFF PHOTO/PAUL FRANZ

Athol’s Dominik St. Andre goes up for a shot against Turners Falls during the visiting Bears’ Hampshire League North victory on Thursday night in Turners Falls.

Athol’s Dominik St. Andre goes up for a shot against Turners Falls during the visiting Bears’ Hampshire League North victory on Thursday night in Turners Falls. STAFF PHOTO/PAUL FRANZ

Turners Falls’ David Klempner goes up for a shot while defended by Athol’s Karim Thompson during the visiting Bears’ Hampshire League North victory on Thursday night in Turners Falls.

Turners Falls’ David Klempner goes up for a shot while defended by Athol’s Karim Thompson during the visiting Bears’ Hampshire League North victory on Thursday night in Turners Falls. STAFF PHOTO/PAUL FRANZ

Turners  Falls’ Kainen Stevens goes up for a shot against Athol in Turners Falls on Thursday evening.

Turners Falls’ Kainen Stevens goes up for a shot against Athol in Turners Falls on Thursday evening. Staff Photo/Paul Franz

Athols Karim Thompson goes up for a shot vs Turners Falls in Montague Thursday evening.

Athols Karim Thompson goes up for a shot vs Turners Falls in Montague Thursday evening. Franz

Turners Falls Kainen Stevens competes for a rebound with Athols Aaron Oullette in Montague Thursday evening.

Turners Falls Kainen Stevens competes for a rebound with Athols Aaron Oullette in Montague Thursday evening. Franz

Athols Karim Dominik St. Andre deflects a rebound vs Turners Falls in Montague Thursday evening.

Athols Karim Dominik St. Andre deflects a rebound vs Turners Falls in Montague Thursday evening. Franz

By THOMAS JOHNSTON

Staff Writer

Published: 12-19-2024 9:32 PM

Modified: 12-19-2024 10:29 PM


TURNERS FALLS — The Turners Falls boys basketball team made things interesting in the fourth quarter against the defending Hampshire League North champions on Thursday. 

Athol led just 36-33 going into the fourth, but a 7-0 run by the Bears to open the fourth gave them a 43-33 lead. 

Trailing 49-37 with four minutes to go, the Thunder went on an 8-0 run behind three baskets from Jackson Cogswell and a layup from Caden Williams-Senethavisouk, Cogswell’s last basket cutting it to 49-45 with 1:08 to play. 

Athol made its free throws late however, holding off the Thunder to earn a 55-48 road victory. 

“It’s another game we had to survive,” Bears coach Brian Patria said. “This is a different squad and we’re trying to find our identity for sure. We know we have some talent but we had a lot of missed layups. We probably took 20 points off the board with missed layups. They’re playing hard and playing aggressive though which I like.” 

Turners coach Gary Mullins said he was pleased with the fight his team showed, though mistakes on the offensive end proved to be too costly. 

“We had too many turnovers,” Mullins said. “I thought we had some good scoring opportunities but we just turned it over too much. We had a shot.” 

Both teams traded baskets throughout the first quarter, Ethan Goodwin carrying the Bears with seven points while Karim Thompson tossed in four points but a 3-pointer from Davian Bala to close out the quarter allowed the Thunder to tie things at 11 after eight minutes. 

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It was Athol’s Ben Kearney and Turners’ Cogswell who went back and forth in the second quarter. 

Kearney ripped off five straight to give the Bears a 16-13 lead but Cogswell went on to convert an and-one, got to the tin for two and swished a 3 that gave Turners a 23-19 lead. Kearney closed out the frame with a pair of baskets that tied the game at 25 going into the intermission. 

A 7-0 run behind baskets from Ethan Bacigalupo, Kearney and Logan Cormier gave Athol a 32-25 lead but a trio of baskets from Thunder Kainen Stevens followed by a layup from Williams-Senethavisouk allowed Turners to cut it to 36-33 going into the fourth. 

Kearney got to the rim for two before knocking down a 3 while Aaron Ouellet scored inside to open the fourth for the Bears. 

After the Thunder made it a 43-37 game, Goodwin, Ouellet and Cormier scored consecutive baskets that put Athol up, 49-37, with under four minutes to play. 

Kearney led the way with 25 points, Goodwin scored 12 points, Ouellet tossed in eight points while Thompson tallied six points for the Bears. 

Cogswell finished with 20 points, Stevens scored 13 points, Williams-Senethavisouk tallied eight points and Bala added five points for Turners. 

Greenfield 66, Drury 63 (OT) – A monster night from Grayson Thomas helped the Green Wave pick up a huge early-season Hampshire League South victory on Thursday night.

Thomas scored a game-high 32 points, including six in overtime, to help Greenfield edge Drury at Nichols Gymnasium. Thomas hit a buzzer-beater to send the game to overtime and proceeded to hit a buzzer-beater as time experired in overtime to life the Wave to a victory. 

Thomas scored nine points in the fourth quarter, as the two HL South foes battled neck-and-neck all night. He drilled all three of his 3-pointers in the fourth quarter and OT.

Caleb Murray (11 points) and Jon Breor (10) also scored in double figures for Greenfield (2-0, 1-0), which trailed 40-36 after three quarters.

Next up is a Saturday night home game against Wahconah at 6 p.m.

Franklin Tech 41, Mount Greylock 38 — The Eagles trailed 33-32 after three quarters but stormed back to take the lead in the fourth, with Hunter Donahue putting Tech up with a basket with 6:08 to go ahead, 38-35, before a Nolyn Stafford runner with 1:13 to go put Tech ahead, 40-35. 

The Mounties fought back but the Eagles hung on and survived a few missed 3s late to record a Hampshire League North victory in Williamstown on Thursday. 

Hunter Donahue led the way with 12 points, Nolyn Stafford scored nine points, Gabe Mota tossed in five points while Brody Hicks added four points in the victory. 

Frontier 58, Mahar 49 — Make it three wins to open the season for the Redhawks, who walked away with a Hampshire League South triumph over the Senators at Goodnow Gymnasium Thursday. 

Max Millette scored a game-high 25 points, Garrett Dredge and Alex Ellis each put up 11 points while Rowan Modestow added four points for Frontier, who led 30-22 at the half and 43-35 going into the fourth. 

Jayden Delgado recorded 18 points, Morgan Softic scored nine points while Lian Lopez-Baez, Marshall Ames and Derek Collins each had six points for Mahar. 

Pioneer 82, Lenox 48 – Brayden Thayer drilled four 3-pointers and poured in 30 points as the Panthers put up another big number in the Berkshires on Thursday night.

Three days after pasting Mount Greylock 93-20, Pioneer made another trip west and notched an 84-48 win in its Hampshire League South opener in Lenox.

Kurt Redeker went for 22 points to aid the Panthers (2-0, 1-0), which led 24-9 after one quarter and 44-18 at halftime. Will Glazier tossed in 10 points in the win while Jackson Glazier followed with seven points and Alex McClelland notched six.

Girls basketball

Frontier 40, West Springfield 16 – Another fast start propelled the Redhawks to another lopsided victory on Thursday.

Frontier opened the game on a 12-0 run and didn’t allow a point for the first 6 minutes, 50 seconds of action. The Hawks led 15-2 after one quarter and 29-4 at halftime en route to an independent win in West Springfield.

Southwick 57, Franklin Tech 36 – The Eagles fell into a double-digit halftime deficit and couldn’t climb back, falling to the Rams in an independent contest on Thursday in Turners Falls.

Southwick led 28-15 at halftime. Ten different Eagles scored points on the night, led by Hannah Gilbert's nine points. Haleigh Benoit followed with six points for Tech.

Granby 54, Athol 15 – The Bears started strong, trailing just 19-11 after one quarter, but host Granby held Athol to just four points total over the final three quarters en route to the independent win on Thursday.

Ava Adams scored five points to pace Athol, and Ava Martin added four. The Rams led 32-13 at halftime.

Hockey 

Greenfield 6, Longmeadow 1 — The Green Wave opened up Berry League action on Thursday and made an early statement to the rest of the league. 

Taking on the Lancers, Greenfield scored four goals in the first period to run away with a 6-1 road victory. The win made it three in a row to open the season for the Green Wave. 

Chase Zraunig opened the scoring before Jake Jurek potted a pair of goals. Shawn Baumann closed out the period with a goal to give Greenfield its 4-0 lead. 

Shawn Beckwith and Jack Laurie closed out the scoring in the third period for the Wave. Matt Garvin (2), Anson Prunier, Porter Hall,  Beckwith and Cam Hopkins provided the assists while Cooper Smith made 19 saves in the victory. 

Wednesday results

Wrestling

Franklin Tech 66, Hampshire 18 — The Eagles opened their season in Westhampton on Wednesday, securing 11 pins to run away with a victory over the Raiders. 

Johnathan McIntyre (106), Mason Thurston (120), Carsten Couture (126), Landon Purington (138), Camryn Laster (150), Benjamin Baker (157), Travis Eastman (165), Izaya Romer (175), Collin Eddy (190), Seamus Collins (215) and Dillon Laffond (285) were the winners for Franklin Tech. 

Mohawk Trail 30, Gateway 27 — Wade Purington (120), Luke Read (126) and Ryan Westort (132) secured wins via pin for the Warriors in a victory over the Gators in Huntington Wednesday. 

Boys swimming

 Holyoke 79, Turners 74 — Liam Bliss took the 200 IM in a time of two minutes, 20.44 seconds, breaking a Thunder school record which had stood since the 1986-87 season, as Turners fell to the Purple Knights in Holyoke Wednesday. 

Malcolm Tyler won the 200 free (2:29.36) while Tyler, William Tyler, Tyler Galenski and Bliss won the 400 free relay (4:23.68) for Turners. 

Girls swimming

Holyoke 98, Turners 78 — Sigrid Calhoun won the dive while Lilian Walker-Hanning took the 100 breast (1:20.13) for the Thunder in a loss to the host Purple  Knights on Wednesday. 

Sylvie DiBartolomeo, Avery Houle, Alice Fortin and Tristan Bliss won the 400 free relay (4:41.30) for Turners.