Friday January 11, 2013

DALTON -- It's the kind of game Wahconah is finally winning.

"There's some great teams here in Berkshire County," said Warriors coach Ed Ladley. "There's going to be some dogfights [with] St. Joe's, Taconic, Pittsfield High."

In the gym bearing Ladley's name, Wahconah had to scrap to win one of those battles on Thursday, stopping Taconic 51-48. For a Warriors team that struggled last season, being able to withstand everything the Braves threw at them in a 22-point fourth-quarter rally was huge.

"Our togetherness, all season we've been pushing to stay together," said Jono Bracci. "That's what worked for us. It feels great. Last year, two wins, 18 losses, one of the worst records our school has seen in years. The [morale] on the team [this year], everything is clicking."

Bracci, who finished with 10 points, helped get things rolling with a buzzer-beating 3 that gave Wahconah (6-2, 2-2 North) a 13-5 lead after a quarter. It was one of four straight 3s from Bracci and Collin Parrott, who had 18 points, that put the Warriors in control.

The lead was a comfortable double digits for most of the first three quarters, aided by a tough, swarming zone defense from Ladley's club.

"We really worked as hard as we can on defense," Parrott said. "As the game went on it kind of wore off. But at the end we buckled down."

Taconic (3-5, 2-2 North) made its push in the fourth, knocking down five 3s in the final eight

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minutes. Three came from Trayvon Sims, who had 10 of his 14 in the fourth. His 3 with 1:23 left cut a lead that had been at 13 less than four minutes earlier to just four. The Braves pulled within a point thanks to a free throw from Sims and a bucket from Mike Taylor with 25.3 seconds left.

That's as close as Taconic could get though, with Parrott sinking two late free throws to ice the win.