BY RICK WILSON It took the better part of six seasons, but the Berkshire League is no longer chasing the Bears. This moment now belongs to the mighty Mountaineers of Housatonic.
They partied pretty good in front of a party-hearty crowd in the Housatonic gym Wednesday night, and why not? The Mountaineers took control of the BL race in dramatic and gritty fashion, rallying from a 10-point third-quarter deficit and riding some last-minute heroics from Chloe Dakers to derail Thomaston, 46-43.
Sure, there are games left to be played, but this was Thomaston the Mountaineers knocked off — the five-time defending champions who have ruled the BL roost for more than half a decade with six titles in seven years. The team that until Friday night hadn’t lost a league game in almost two years.
Then there were the numbers that show Housatonic at 10-1 (13-1 overall) and clearly the big man on the BL campus right now, a game ahead of the Bears and in control of their own destiny.
“You finally beat Thomaston,” said one rapturous fan to first-year coach Steve Dodge.
“We have to go in each game like it is a championship game,” said Dodge. “Now we have the target on our backs. It’s showtime. And the kids are excited.”
And it all wasn’t lost on the players.
“We knew after (Thomaston) lost to Northwestern (Friday), that they could be beaten, and now we have confidence,” said Dakers. “It’s the best feeling in the entire world.”
Bears coach Bob McMahon gave the Mountaineers their just due.
“They came in here to prove a point, and I think they did that,” said McMahon.
Dakers (17 points) was immense in helping create that feeling. With Thomaston leading, 41-37, after an Alexa Milius foul shot with 2:47 to go, the slippery senior guard went to work, and she and her teammates will remember it for a long time.
With just over two minutes, Dakers let fly and boarded in a 3-pointer. And just for the record, it wasn’t planned.
“There was no way I called that,” laughed Dakers.
Thomaston (9-4) then turned the ball over on its next two possessions, and Dakers was at it again. With 49 seconds left, she drove in from the left side and banked in a short shot to put the Mountaineers ahead, 42-41.
The Bears proceeded to turn the ball over a third straight time and sent Dakers to the foul line with 26.9 seconds to go. She calmly canned both shots for a 44-41 edge. Thomaston wasn’t done yet, however.
Unfortunately for the Bears, neither was Dakers.
Julia Quinn who carried the Bears most of the night with 22 points, lofted a long 3-pointer that just rimmed out, but Casey Carangelo (14 points, 12 rebounds) rebounded and was fouled. She drained both shots to cut the Housatonic lead to 44-43 with 18 seconds left.
But then Dakers went to the line again. She missed and Carangleo grabbed the carom, but was stripped and Dakers ended up with the ball and at the foul line again.
This time, she drained both shots with nine seconds left, giving her nine points in the last two minutes for a 46-43 lead.
Quinn lofted a 30-footer that didn’t miss by much, and suddenly there was more dancing than at a high school prom.
“Chloe is just amazing. She is never say die and gives 110 percent,” said Dodge.
“I hurt my ankle in the third quarter and I was upset,” said Dakers. “I just told the trainer that I had to go back in the game and that was it.”
The Mountaineers did not shoot particularly well, but that was nullified by a dominating 44-24 edge on the backboards an unearthly 28 of those rebounds coming at the offensive end. But maybe even more impressive was the comeback.
Thomaston led at every quarter break and when Quinn drained a 3-pointer with 5:04 to go in the third quarter the edge hit 40-30. But just as quickly, Carangelo picked up her third foul and the Mountaineers ripped off 10 straight points to tie the game late in the third quarter.
“They never give up and never get mentally down,” said Dodge. “We knew in the first half that we weren’t playing well and still playing with the best, the Bears. If that was the case we knew something was going on.
The defeat was particularly frustrating for the Bears. For the second game in a row they built up a lead early, led late and lost late. Housatonic outscored the Bears, 16-13 in the final 13 minutes.
“If you ask me to give an explanation for this it’s that we can’t rebound the basketball,” said McMahon. “It’s the same thing every night. We did get some good looks down the stretch. But, I think it’s time people stopped comparing this team with teams that played before. We have a lot of new kids out there. “
In the meantime, the long chase is over for the BL. Now they are chasing the Mountaineers.