By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
For North Adams head coach Austin McCormick, it as a week that will be embedded in his memory forever. On Wednesday, he added another title to his name, that being “dad” as his wife Delaney gave birth to a son (Max) and by all reports everyone is fine. McCormick’s Green Devils were slated open Division VI district tournament play on Friday night, hosting the Southeastern Panthers, so it seemed like McCormick would have plenty if time to get wife wife and baby home, then make it to his team’s tournament game.
Well, sometimes the best plans go awry, and as it turned out, his wife and baby were not released from the hospital until Friday afternoon, forcing the head coach to make the trek straight from the hospital to the North Adams High School gymnasium. The trip turned out to be a worthwhile one as a memorable week was capped off with a victory as the Green Devils used a fourth quarter push to punch their ticket to the district semifinals with a 61-53 win over the visiting Panthers.
“To be honest, there were multiple times throughout the day and night that I was completely overwhelmed with emotion,” said Coach McCormick. “Being able to see Delaney give birth to Max on Wednesday was the best day of my life and then from there staying in the hospital later than anticipated on Friday and rushing home to try and make it back to be there for the boys made everything seem like a blur.”
“After I got there for the tail end of warm ups and talked to the boys in the locker room, I had to just sit on the bench and take a minute before the game started to regain my composure and then the rest of the night was pretty much just relying in full adrenaline. By the time the final buzzer sounded, I just felt thankful and blessed.”
“Our staff did a great job in practice of getting the boys ready,” McCormick continued. “But it would have been easy for the guys to lose focus and use that as an excuse not to fight but instead they battled for 32 minutes and we came away with a win. We try and build our culture on the fact that North Adams basketball is a family and I told the boys after the game how proud I was of them.”
With a near capacity crows on hand for both sides, the story of the opening minutes for the Green Devils was offensive efficiency, as the home team scored on eight of their first nine possessions, opening up an early advantage of 15-6 behind three-pointers from Jesse Kennedy on their first possession and later from Dalton Pence. In the meanwhile, the Panthers’ strategy was to use their size advantage to pound the ball inside against the smaller Devils and it worked to bring the visitors closer as a late three from Gage Cheadle cut the North Adams lead to 20-14 after one quarter of fast-paced action.
Just over a minute into the second stanza, a second three-ball from Pence put North Adams up 25-28, but the rest of the period belonged to Southeastern, beginning with a 7-0 run, capped by another Cheadle triple, tied the game at 25 with 2:50 left in the half. The Devils went back in front with four straight, all from the work of Carson Davis, only to see the Panthers end the half with back to back buckets from Landon Brown and at halftime the two teams were right back where they started, dead even at 29 apiece.
The third quarter began with the two teams tossing up matching three-point goals, Kennedy for North Adams and Brevin Strausbaugh for Southeastern , followed by a Gabe Oates free throw that gave the Panthers their first lead of the game at 33-32.That sequence set the tone for the third period, one that saw four ties and seven lead changes. North Adams went up 38-35 on a long three-pointer from Kennedy, only to see the Panthers again throw in the match, this time from Brayden Burns. a later trey from Pence put the Devils ahead by four and the quarter closed with a Southeastern bucket that sent the game to the final period as a two-point affair, the Devils on top 44-42.
as the final quarter began, the home team finally came up with the spurt that asserted control, opening on a 9-3 run that included three-point buckets from point guard Thaddeus Moore and his backup, Preston Call. that gave the Devils some breathing room and a drive to the rim and score from Davis left them with a double digit advantage at 55-45.
“The big thing was keeping the ball out of the paint on straight line drives and getting to the midline to take away the post,” said Coach McCormick. ” I thought our rebounding improved in the second half and we tell our kids that rebounding is the one area of the game where they are allowed to be selfish We have to do that as an under-sized team.”
The lead later ballooned to 11 with 1:23 to play after a pair of Pence free throws and the Devils were in no danger, getting their final four points from the charity stripe, two from Kennedy and two from Call and an emotional week for Coach McCormick had a very happy ending as the new “Dad” and his squad advanced in district tournament play with the 61-53 triumph.
The winners put together a balanced scoring attack that saw them get a quartet of players into double figures, led by 17 points from Carson Davis. Jesse Kennedy tallied 14 with Dalton Pence adding 12 and Thaddeus Moore 10. The Devils drained 10 three-pointers in the win and went 14-18 from the foul line.
“We ask Carson to log a lot of minutes on a nightly basis, ask him to do a lot for us,” said Coach McCormick. He attacks the basket on offense and usually guards someone bigger than him but he always battles. “
“Preston hitting free throws and that big three. He doesn’t lack confidence at all and he’s always ready to shoot. Kaleb Eldridge comes off the bench and does his job so well, willing to put his body on the line and give that energy we need, plays his tail off every possession.”
Southeastern put three players in double figures, all of them scoring 11 points- Gage Cheadle, Gabe Oates and Brevin Strausbaugh. The Panthers were just 3-12 from the free throw line in the defeat.
The win propelled the Green Devils into the Division V district semifinals, where they were slated to battle the Portsmouth West Senators on Tuesday, march 3 at the Waverly Downtown Arena. (The results of that contest were not available by this edition’s deadline.)
Box Score
Southeastern
14 15 13 11 —53
North Adams
20 9 15 17 —61
Southeastern (53): Smith 2 0-0 4, Wireman 1 0-0 2, Burns 2 1-2 7, Cheadle 4 0-0 11, Oates 5 1-3 11, Strausbaugh 5 0-4 11, Brown 3 0-1 6, Whittington 0 1-2 1, Team 22 3-12 53.
N. Adams (61): Kennedy 4 2-2 14, Call 1 3-4 6, Moore 4 0-0 10, Pence 4 4-5 12, Tolle 1 0-0 2, Davis 6 5-7 17, Team 20 14-18 61.
Three-Point Goals:
Southeastern (6)- Burns 2, Cheadle 3, Strausbaugh 1
N. Adams (10)- Kennedy 4, Call 1, Moore 2, Pence 3
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