By Mark Carpenter

People’s Defender

The Big Green Machine, otherwise known as the North Adams Green Devils, continued to steamroll opponents on Tuesday night, this time the victim being the visiting West Union Dragons. Both teams were a bit shorthanded, the Devils missing senior Bransyn Copas to an ankle injury and the Dragons missing senior Isaac Harding, who was out due to still being in concussion protocol.

It has been a tough season for the Dragons, with a slew of injuries and offensive issues adding up to just three wins while the Devils are headed in a completely opposite direction, improving their record to 16-3 with the 67-3o defeat of the Dragons on Tuesday.

The Dragons had an early 3-2 lead on a Billy Flaugher but the Devils ran off eight straight and never trailed again. building such a big lead that the running clock rule went into effect late in the third quarter. The Dragons had kept within relative striking for a large portion of the first half but a flurry of turnovers against the North Adams pressure led to easy scores for the home team and the visitors never recovered, especially after the home team scored 24 in the third period.

When Copas missed a game for the Devils in Ripley the previous week, it was junior Breestin Schweickart who stepped up to fill the scoring slack with 24 points and on Tuesday night North Adams’ #23 provided an encore, leading a trio of Devils in double figures with 20 points, many coming on his patented acrobatic drives to the basket. Konnor Rogers matched his uniform number with 11 points while Connor Young added 10 and Jayce Rothwell 8.

For the Dragons, it was senior Brennan Pollitt leading the way with 10 points with Flaugher adding 8.

The Dragons will be in Southern Hills Athletic Conference action for the final time this season on Friday night when they travel to Manchester to face the red-hot Greyhounds, who are winners of six of their last seven.

For the Devils, the goal is now to do something that no North Adams boys team has done since 2009, and that is to capture the coveted SHAC Gold Ball trophy. To do that, they will only need to defeat the Lynchburg-Clay Mustangs on the road Friday night. North Adams will then have a pair of non-conference outings to end their regular season, both at home, Georgetown on February 13 and South Webster on February 19.

The JV game on Tuesday night also went the way of the home team as Coach Austin McCormick’s Green Devils used a big secondhalf to pull away and claim a 55-21 victory.

West Union

8 8 9 5 —30

North Adams

23 15 24 5 —67

W. Union (30): McIntosh 3, Pollitt 10, Davis 2, Jarvis 5, Flaugher 8, Stanfield 2

N. Adams (67): Rothwell 8, Hesler 6, Young 10, Rogers 11, Osborne 7, Moore 3, Schweickart 20, McCann 2