Southwick’s Connor Roy beats four South Hadley defenders for a monster layup Friday night. (Photo by Bill Deren)
SOUTHWICK – The Southwick High School boys basketball team may have made a wrong turn recently in its season-long quest to play in the postseason, but the Rams are back on the right side of the track again.
Devin Parrow scored a game-high 16 points, and Southwick held South Hadley to seven points in each of the final two quarters to halt a four-game slide with a 54-40 victory Friday night.
“To keep our tournament hopes alive, this was very necessary to win this game,” said Southwick coach Peter Fiorentino, whose team, now at 7-6, must win three of its final seven games to earn a postseason berth. “That seventh one is pretty big.”
Connor Roy and Cade Billings scored nine points apiece to lead Southwick. Rams’ Dan Scharmann and Josh Lis each had eight points. Lis capped off the team’s 19-point, third quarter with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer.
Hunter Carey led South Hadley with 11 points.
Southwick begins a brief two-game road trip Monday at Wahconah, followed by an away game at Ludlow (Tuesday) before retuning home next Friday against Palmer.
Lancers rain on Bombers
Longmeadow 54, Westfield 39
Colin Lockhart scored a game-high 21 points, and Longmeadow held off Westfield at Westfield Technical Academy High School.
Will Cameron led Westfield with nine points.
The game was moved from Westfield High School due to a leak in the gymnasium’s roof inside the Bombers’ home court.
GEARING UP FOR POSTSEASON RUN: Entering Friday’s indoor track meet against West Springfield, Westfield had more than a half-dozen postseason qualifiers.
Westfield’s Samir Ghalayini (55 hurdles, 8.78) and Brian Rawson (300 meters, 38.82) both qualified for the Pioneer Valley Interscholastic Athletic Conference Boys Indoor Track Championships, while Brenden LaForest (300M, 37.15; 600 M, 1:26.22) earned a trip to, not only the PVIAC, but also the Division 2 state championships.
In girls indoor track, Westfield’s Catie Bean logged a D2 state qualifying time in the 300 meters (43.88) and a PVIAC qualifying finish in the 600 meters (1:48.62).
Bombers’ Nina Prenosil (300M, 45.87; 600M, 1:48.75), Emily Bone (300M, 45.60), Nicole Servetnik (600M, 1:53.17), Maggie Philpott (1000M, 3:25.69), the 4×400 relay team of Maggie Philpott, Marissa Feary, Abby Daley, Prenosil (4:43.27) and the 4×800 relay team of Bone, Feary, Servetnik, and Jamie Collier (11:46.13) have all qualified for PVIACs.
REGULAR SEASON RACE OVER: Westfield’s Tommy Russell won two events (50 freestyle, 22.24; 100 backstroke, WMass leading 53.89) and Lizzie Fraser (1:15.01) were the lone individual winners for their respective swim teams (boys, girls) in Friday’s road losses to Longmeadow.
It was the final meet of the regular season.
“We actually swam a spirited meet and had some really, really good swims,” Westfield head swim coach Tom Lewis said. “They were just far too strong. …Not a bad outing – Longmeadow is just far too deep.”
Westfield’s medley relay team (Russell, Patrick Lurgio, Jack Beaulieu, Matt Morash) finished first in 1:46.10. Bombers’ Patrick Callahan recorded a season best time of 5:54.07 in the 500 freestyle to place fourth.
As far as the girls were concerned, coach Lewis said, “(We) just never seemed to get it going. …It was a meet where we swam pretty well but we never really got the energy and the spirit started for a big closing meet.”
Westfield will now enjoy a two-week break before embarking on the annual journey known as the west sectional championships.
Said Lewis: “We have to really pick up our steam to get to where we want to be.”
