By Mark Carpenter

People’s Defender

Sometimes the local junior high basketball squads slip under the radar compared to their high school counterparts, but there is one junior high squad at North Adams that has been making big noise thus far in the 2023-24 season.

Coach Brady Johnson and his seventh grade Lady Devils are perfect to this point, unbeaten with a 12-0 record after a 39-13 thrashing of Manchester on Thursday night.

There have been many dynamic duos in local basketball lore and there seems to be another one on the way to the high school ranks in North Adams seventh graders Tenzlee Burns and Kennedi Campbell, The pair of guards have dominated opponents this season and at Manchester combined for 32 of the 39 North Adams points.

In Thursday’s contest, the host Lady Hounds had a 4-2 lead early in the game on two baskets from Hayden Rideout, but a three-pointer by Burns put the visiting Lady Devils on top and they never looked back, pushing that lead to 7-4 at the end of the first period. In the second stanza, Burns hit a pair of buckets and a pair of free throws, while Sophia Barlow added a couple of scores and the halftime lead for North Adams bulged to 22-9. The highlight for the home team in that second quarter was a three-point goal from Mariah Gadd.

Out of the halftime break, the Lady Devils’ defense pitched a third quarter shutout while Burns and Campbell both connected from beyond the arc to extend the lead to 30-9. The final quarter belonged to Campbell as the shifty guard poured in seven points, including another three-ball. Manchester got fourth quarter baskets from Rideout and Maddie Easter but it was the Lady Devils who seized the moment with the 25-point triumph.

Burns and Campbell led all scorers with 16 points apiece with the winners also getting 4 from Barlow, 2 from Sydney McCann and 1 from Chloe Armstrong.

Manchester (7-3) was led by 6 points from Rideout, with Easter adding 4 and Gadd 3.

The Lady Devils will put their perfect mark on the line on Wednesday, January 17 when they travel to Peebles while the seventh grade Lady Hounds will be back in action on Saturday, January 13, also at Peebles.