Good Ol' Fun

Good suburban league game tonight as Northampton took on South Hadley down at Hamp. Good game from both sides. Thanks to this guys sitting behind me and Mike, I found myself rooting for Hamp. After every basket, he would yell “You know how we do!!!” or “OH YEAH OH YEAAA.” Then as South Hadley brought it up the court, it was “GET that ball back.” I swear he could have announced figure skating and make me want to watch it. Ok maybe that is pushing it but this guy was intense.
Back to me rooting for Hamp. They go into the half up 6 after leading most of the first, and me and the guy behind me are pretty pumped. Then SH comes back in the second and wins by 2. Mike is doing a story on the game in the Gazette so go read that and get all the details of the game, capiche? I was definitely surprised by the comeback. Didn’t see it coming until the last 5 minutes, kind of a gut wrencher. I think the guy behind me is on suicide watch after that ending.
Hamp also brought back some memories of my high school playing days. I remembered how good the hotdog that I got after my JV game, and my memory served me well, tubesteak was just as delicious tonight. Not really an actually memory from when I was ballin’, but that didn’t happen to often so I remember the other things. I remembered that Hamp doesn’t have any showers in the visitors locker room. Just weak.
It was a good game to kick of the tour. Looking forward to the next one, will update soon.
-Dave
Hey guys, it's Mike...that's right I hacked in and I'm on Dave's post...Here's my story on the game from the Gazette.
NORTHAMPTON - It wasn't pretty, but it was a good win for the South Hadley boys basketball team.
The Tigers escaped with 59-57 win over Northampton Thursday night.
"We're very proud to win here on the road with the Northampton program Rey Harp's built," South Hadley coach Jeff Guiel said. "To be honest, it's an amazing win."
While Guiel was happy that his Tigers came away with the win, there was still cause for concern.
"We have about 20 major items we need to improve," Guiel said. "We're incredibly rusty offensively, and Northampton exploited it."
South Hadley was uncharacteristically sloppy throughout, but hung with the Blue Devils just long enough to make their move late in the second half.
South Hadley did not have a lead until there were 7 minutes, 24 seconds remaining in the second half, when Northampton junior Nick Kellogg fouled Colin Lacey and sent him to the line for two foul shots.
The South Hadley junior sank both free throws to give the Tigers a 45-44 lead.
They stretched it to three, but the Blue Devils took it right back on an acrobatic up-and-under move by Kellogg and a fast-break layup by Nick Shaheen after a South Hadley turnover.
The Tigers took the lead for good when Ryan Garvey hit a jumper that pushed South Hadley ahead 49-48 with 5:30 left.
Tiger senior Dan Lopes finished the game with a team-high 17 points, including 13 in the second half.
Lopes said the difference for South Hadley, which trailed 28-22 at halftime, was establishing its offense.
"We were taking bad shots, but we settled down and ran our sets," Lopes said. "We started running off of picks, and picked up our defense too."
Garvey also was a big part of the Tiger attack, adding 12 points and 12 rebounds for South Hadley.
The Tigers were 13-of-18 from the free-throw line in the second half. The Devils struggled from the line and were 4-of-13 in the second half.
Harp said the difference in the second half was the composure of a tournament-tested South Hadley team against his inexperienced squad.
"They're a good team and have the experience we're trying to get," Harp said. "Hopefully, this will send us in the right direction."
Northampton was in control early, opening the game on a 9-1 run. It was
highlighted by a Kellogg layup on a great pass from Zach Holland-O'Neill, forcing Guiel to use his first time-out.
Northampton's attack was led by Kellogg who scored 19 points and added seven rebounds. Holland-O'Neill contributed 10 points and five rebounds for the Blue Devils.
Northampton cocaptain Will Workman, who suffered a back injury at a summer camp in June and re-aggravated it Dec. 15 against Minnechaug Regional, missed most of the first half and all of the second half because of the problem.
"I overdid it in the Minnechaug game," Workman said. "It got to the point where I was hurting the team by being out there."
Workman was held scoreless in his brief time on the court.
The Blue Devils also have been without Brennan Cooper, who transferred from Minnechaug, since the beginning of the season with a knee injury.
Both teams are off until Wednesday when Northampton travels to Easthampton and South Hadley hosts Athol.

Couple of quick notes: Lopes and Guiel are really good guys, go figure. So is Harp. And UMass football coach Don Brown was in attendance last night, his daughter attends South Hadley. -MC