Schweickart’s 24 leads Green Devils past Ripley

By Mark Carpenter

People’s Defender

Next man up. That was one of the obstacles facing the North Adams Green Devils on Tuesday night as they made the trip to Ripley to face the Blue Jays in Southern Hills Athletic Conference play. Besides going into one of the toughest shooting venues in the SHAC, the Devils were coming off a pair of very emotional victories over the weekend and to top it off, were without leading scorer Bransyn Copas, who was sidelined with a toe injury. All of those factors played in Ripley’s favor going in, but when it was all over, the Green Devils proved their superiority, waking from a first quarter slumber to score 34 points in the middle two periods and led by 24 points from junior Breestin Schweickart, ran away with a 52-32 victory.

The win was the 11th in a row for the Devils and improved their overall mark to 13-3, 9-0 in conference play. North Adams also stands at #2 in the Division III Southeast District RPI rankings.

With Copas on the shelf, the Devils struggled early against the 3-2 Ripley zone in a gymnasium that is notorious for opponents having difficulties from the field. The Devils misfired on their first four shots and went scoreless for the game’s first four minutes, finally getting on the board which a Schweickart floater in the lane. The Jays maintained their early lead despite a Carson Osborne three-pointer and an old-fashioned three-point play from Connor Young. The first quarter closed with the home team holding a 12-8 advantage.

The second stanza began with a Schweickart bucket in transition and another Osborne triple to give the Devils their first lead of the night at 13-12. The Jays answered with back-to-back scores to retake the lead and were on top 18-15 with 3:20 left in the first half. In that final three minutes, the Ripley lead and their dreams of an upset vanished together. North Adams finished the first half on an 11-0 run, getting a pair of Schweickart three-balls plus steals and scores from Konnor Rogers and Jayce Rothwell and taking a 26-18 advantage into halftime.

The Devils got scores on their first two possessions of the third period, Schweickart getting a steal and dishing to Cody Hesler for the easy bucket, then Schweickart draining another trey to push the North Adams lead to double digits at 31-20. A pair of Ripley scores cut the margin back down to seven but again the Devils reeled off 11 straight and extended the lead out to 42-24. A Blue Jay basket left the home team down by 16 at the end of three.

The lead stayed at 16 through most of the final frame, extending beyond that when baskets by Young and Schweickart made it 52-30 and allowed North Adams coach Nathan Copas to empty his bench. The final points of the night were two Ripley free throws, accounting for the final score of 52-32.

Breestin Schweickart led the offense for the winning Green Devils with his 24 points, with running mate Jayce Rothwell also hitting double figures with 11. Carson Osborne added 8.

Ripley was led by 10 points from Blake Fyffe, 8 from Ty Fyffe and 7 from Jayden Bartley. The Blue Jays dropped to 2-15 overall with the loss.

Coach Copas and his squad will be back in action at home on Friday night, hosting county rival Peebles. The two teams have already met twice this season, with the Devils coming out on top both times. On Saturday night, the Devils will face a tough conference road trip to Eastern Brown to make up a game that was cancelled due to weather back on January 19. At home on December 8, North Adams defeated Eastern Brown 53-44.

North Adams

8 18 16 10 —52

Ripley

12 6 8 6 —32

North Adams (52): Rothwell 11, Hesler 2, Young 5, Rogers 2, Osborne 8, Schweickart 24

Ripley (32): Ty Fyffe 8, Bartley 7, Blake Fyffe 10, Manning 5, Benjamin 2

Three-Point Goals:

North Adams- Osborne 2, Schweickart 3