North Adams junior guard Thaddeus Moore led the Green Devils with 10 points in their February 14 loss at Eastern brown. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
Any time that you go into a game against Coach Rob Beucler and his Eastern Warriors, there is one thing you can be sure of. Scoring the basketball will not be an easy task. The Eastern defense is a consistent from year to year and the North Adams Green Devils got a first hand look at that in a Valentine’s evening rescheduled game.
Playing on the Warriors’ home court, scoring was a struggle for the Devils from start to finish and the numbers show that. North Adams shot just 23% from the field (9-39), with 25 of those shot attempts coming from beyond the three-point arc, where they hit just five of those, adding up to more three-point goals in the game than two-pointers. And al of that added up to just 24 points for the entire night as Eastern held serve on their home floor and handed the Green Devils a convincing 46-24 defeat.
From the start, it was evident a low-scoring affir was in the cards for the capacity crowd at Kiser Court, though the game stayed close for the fisrt two quarters. In the opening frame, North Adams got a pair oif three-pointers from Thaddeus Moore and a two-pointer from Moore put North Adams up 10-8 after one.
A theme of the night began to become apparent in the second preiod as Eastern big man, 6’5” junior Matthew Dick began to control the paint, converting three offensive rebounds into scores. Those baskets were part of a 9-0 Eastern run that gave the home team a six-point lead with 3:29 left in thef irst half. In that span, the Devils got anothr bucket from Moore and trailed the Warriors at the half 20-15.
The third quarter would spell doom for the Devils as they could only muster six points while the Warriors’ Dick continued to control the insideand an 8-0 run put Eastern in front 36-20. A three-ball at the buzzer by Jaidon Florence gave the home side a commanding 41-21 advantage after three periods.
If the third quarter was an offenisve disaster for the Devils, the fourth was even worse as they only managed three points over the eight minute span, a Colin Tolle three-point bucket with 5:25 to play. On the bright side, the Warriosr only scored five but that was because the Eastern offense milked the clock with every possession. A three-ball from Eastern senior Sam Kirk closed out the scoring as the big school champions of the SHAC claimed the 22-point win.
The Warriors (17-3, 11-1) were led by Matthew Dick’s double-double effort of 17 points and 13 rebounds, with Jaidon Florence adding 11 points. North Adams was led in socring by 10 points from Thaddeus Moore and 8 from Colin Tolle.
The Green Devils (12-7, 7-5) were back in action on Monday night with a non-conference trip to Unioto and concluded regular season and conference play on Tuesday night with a trip to Fairfield.
BOX SCORE
North Adams
10 5 6 3 —24
Eastern Brown
8 12 21 5 —46
N. Adams (24): Kennedy 1 0-0 2, Moore 4 0-0 10, Davis 0 1-2 1, Call 1 0-0 3, Tolle 3 0-0 8, Team 9 1-2 24.
E. Brown (46): Kirk 1 0-0 3, Dotson 2 1-2 5, Pinkerton 1 0-0 2, Dick 7 3-3 17, Vance 2 0-0 4, Florence 3 2-2 11, Ramer 1 2-2 4, Team 17 8-9 46.
Three-Point Goals:
North Adams (5)- Moore 2, Call 1, Tolle 2
E. Brown (3)- Kirk 1, Florence 2
