Very impressive weekend for the Green Devils

By Mark Carpenter

People’s Defender

If anyone doubted the talent, tenacity and toughness of the North Adams Green Devils varsity boys basketball squad, put them to rest. This past weekend proved beyond a doubt that the Green Devils are a force to be reckoned with in the upcoming postseason and are the undisputed top team in the Southern Hills Athletic Conference. Coach Nathan Copas and his squad pulled off two huge wins on Friday and Saturday, knocking off previously unbeaten Fairfield in their home gym, then coming back the next night to whip the Portsmouth Trojans on their home floor. Those two “W’s” kept the Green Devils unbeaten in conference play and moved them up to the #2 spot in the Southeast District Division III RPI, trailing only the Minford Falcons.

The Friday night trip to Fairfield was one of the most anticipated match ups of the season, with both teams coming in with unblemished conference records, thereby being deemed the “Gold Ball” game. A packed house of rabid and enthusiastic fans to see the contest with so much on the line and the Devils took the lead in the first two minutes with an 11-0 first quarter run and never gave up the lead as they got a career performance out of junior Jayce Rothwell and handed the host Lions their first “L” of the season by a final count of 59-50.

“I 100% believed coming in here tonight that we were the better team but we’d have to play better than them,” said Copas in his postgame radio interview. “Fairfield wasn’t going to roll over, they’re a tough group of kids who play together well and are well-coached. Playing in their place in a hostile environment, it wasn’t going to be a game where we just came in and they were going to let us have our way.”

“I told our team that is was going to be a game of runs, they make one then we make one and so it went. We just had to make our runs a little longer and there’s a lot we can learn from this game- playing in this environment, staying focused, keeping your cool and understanding what we needed to do.”

Friday night’s battle was even at 2-2 early before a stickback bucket by Cody Hesler began the 11-0 North Adams run. Hesler’s score was followed by Rothwell getting a steal and layup not one, not twice, but three time to make it 10-2. The run was topped off with a Breestin Schweickart triple and a 13-2 Devils advantage. The Lions got an old-fashioned three-point play from Larkin Friend but a basket by Schweickart with 1:25 left was the final score of an opening period that ended with North Adams up by 10.

The second stanza was one for the defenses as the two teams combined for just 17 points total, but it did see the Lions make a run when back-to-back three pointers from Friend drew the home team within 17-13. It was obvious that one of the Fairfield goals for the game, and literally for any North Adams opponent, was to contain the Devils’ leading scorer Bransyn Copas but it was five points from Copas, including a late three-ball off the wing that sent the visitors into the halftime break with a 22-15 lead.

to say that the action heated up in the third quarter and for that matter the entire second half, would be a big understatement. The Devils opened the half with a nice fall away jumper from Rothwell and then got a later 8-0 run that began with Rothwell sinking free throws after a technical foul was whistled on Fairfield head coach Quentin Williams. The run ended with Schweickart grabbing an offensive board and putting it back in for the biggest North Adams lead of the night, 34-18.

A resilient bunch of Lions saw that 16-point deficit and suddenly came to life, scoring 11 points in rapid-fire fashion, beginning with a long three-pointer from Trey House and including six free throws, two of those coming after a technical was called on North Adams’ Carson Osborne. That Fairfield run quickly sliced the Devils’ lead to five at 34-29, but regaining their composure in a very hostile environment, the North Adams squad finished the third quarter with a basket by Connor Young and two by Cody Hesler to take a 40-32 advantage into what turned out to be a wild final eight minutes of action.

That final eight began with Fairfield getting as close as they had been since the first quarter as consecutive threes from House and Cade Miller brought the home crowd to their feet and the home team within two at 40-38. Again, though, the Devils kept their cool and answered with a Rothwell layup on a designed side out of bounds play, another Rothwell drive and score, then four consecutive Rothwell free throws, two coming after a second technical was called on the Fairfield head coach, meaning he was ejected from the contest with 1:21 left in regulation.

The visiting Devils now held a 12-point lead with a minute to go and looked to be in pretty good shape. The Lions got back-to-back “and ones” from Friend but in that final minute Rothwell and Schweickart both drained a pair from the charity stripe and North Adams held on for the very hard-fought 59-50 victory, improving them to 8-0 in conference play and keeping them alive in the Gold Ball conversation.

“This was kind of a roller coaster game,” added Coach Copas. ” They had momentum then we had momentum and we made enough runs early to get a lead and they didn’t give up. We turned them over early and got some easy baskets out of it.”

With so much attention on Bransyn Copas by the Fairfield defense, it was running mate Jayce Rothwell who rose to the occasion, leading all scorers with 26 points, including a perfect 10 for 10 from the free throw line. Breestin Schweickart, returning from an ankle injury, also hit double figures with 15, while Copas was below his average with 8 but still did his usual remarkable job of distributing and running the North Adams offense.

“Other teams are trying to take stuff away from Bransyn but the key is that we’re not just a good kid, we’re a good team,” said Coach Copas. “Breestin is just an energy guy and having him back tonight was big for us. Jayce and Bransyn are like our two-headed monster, they compliment each other very well. Jayce and play a lot of positions and I told him early tonight to look at who was guarding him and take advantage of the match ups and was a huge part of our win tonight.”

Fairfield (16-1, 9-1) suffered their first SHAC loss and first overall loss of the season and the Lions were led by 25 points from Larkin Friend with Trey House adding 13.

One might think that the Friday night battle might have emotionally exhausted the Green Devils but they had no time for that as they had to come right back on Saturday night to face the 9-3 Portsmouth Trojans on the Trojans hoe court. With their energy level renewed, the Devils did the same thing on Saturday night as they had Friday night, jumping out early and leading 12-6 after the opening period.

At the half, the Trojans had cut one point off the deficit, North Adams till up 25-20. The second half at Portsmouth was nearly a mirror image of the second half the previous night, as the Trojans made their runs and the Devils continually fought them off and claimed an important RPI win, downing the Trojans 57-51.

Bransyn Cops bounced back to lead the Devils at Portsmouth with 15 points, while Carson Osborne added 12.

The Devils now stand at 12-3 overall with a busy week ahead that began with a trip to Ripley on Tuesday night for a conference match up with the host Blue Jays. The weekend brings a pair of challenging conference battles, first at home with Peebles on Friday then a trip to Eastern Brown on Saturday evening to make up a game that was earlier a victim of winter weather.

North Adams

15 7 18 19 —59

Fairfield

5 10 17 18 —50

N. Adams (59): Rothwell 8 10-10 26, Hesler 3 0-0 6, Young 2 0-0 4, Copas 2 3-4 8, Schweickart 5 4-6 15, Team 20 17-20 59.

Fairfield (50): Friend 7 9-11 25, House 4 2-3 13, McIntosh 3 1-2 7, Miller 2 0-0 5, Team 16 12-16 50.

Three-Point Goals:

N. Adams (2)- Schweickart 1, Copas 1

Fairfield (6)- Friend 2, House 3, Miller 1