St. Mary's Anthony Garde (24) attempts to escape a double team by Pioneer Valley Christian School last night at Westfield South Middle School. (Photo by Chris Putz)
St. Mary's Matt Plasse takes a shot from beyond the arc. (Photo by Chris Putz)
Saints' Dave Labrecque (4) looks to make a play with the ball. (Photo by Chris Putz)
HS ROUNDUP
Tigers tamed
Pathfinder proves too much for Voke
By PETER FRANCIS
Intern
WESTFIELD – The Westfield Vocational Technical-High School boys’ basketball postseason hopes continued to take a bit of a hit last night as visiting Pathfinder Regional navigated its way to a 70-37 victory, behind 24 big points from Pioneers’ big man Jesse Bishop.
Voc-Tech went into the game without its own star center-forward Henry Deaza, who was injured early in the season, and was missed as Bishop bulled his way to the hoop time and time again. The Pioneers utilized their size to devastating effect, constantly crashing the boards and thwarting any opportunity for the Tigers to get their patented running game going.
Voc-Tech refused to roll over, however, and went down swinging, a testament to the attitude and spirit of first-year coach Kyle Dulude, whose team has faced adversity all season. Tiger big man Logan Vanveldhuizen squared off with Bishop all night, displaying the toughness of a tank, and the shooting touch of a rifleman, finishing with 14 points. Guards Bryan Robles and Victor Rosario also chipped in with seven and six points, respectively.
The Tigers were plagued by ice-cold shooting throughout, although Vanveldhuizen began to heat up as the fourth quarter wound down, drilling three consecutive 3-pointers for the home team.
Southwick-Tolland 47, Hampshire 42
Tommy Mahoney continued his blistering scoring pace, netting 21 in last night’s contest. Dylan Grunwald added 15 for the Rams (8-10).
Pioneer Valley Christian School 51, St. Mary’s 46
St. Mary’s led 24-22 at the half, but fell behind in the second half. The Saints rallied to within three points with about two minutes remaining before PVCS pulled away with free throws.
SWIM NOTE: Westfield High School girls’ high school swimmer Jordan Jacobson showed tons of promise for this weekend’s state championships, and for the 2012-13 season. At Western Mass on Sunday, Jacobson finished fifth in the 100 backstroke (1:03.04) and sixth in the 50 freestyle (26:15), and helped anchor a pair of top five relay teams, proving the end is not near. – Chris Putz contributed to this report.
