Red Raiders pick up 1st W
Gaitan, Graham power FHS past Quabbin
FITCHBURG » They got the monkey off their backs.
Thanks to a solid effort and the return of two key players, the Fitchburg boys basketball team tasted victory for the first time in 27 varsity tilts as the Red Raiders downed visiting and previously unbeaten Quabbin Regional, 6144, at the Doug Grutchfield Field House Thursday night.
The win — the first of the James McCall era — lifted Fitchburg to 1-3. The Red and Gray will host archrival Leominster on Monday in the two schools’ first interscholastic meeting of any kind since Feb. 4 of last year.
Quabbin fell to 3-1.
McCall was understandably happy in gaining that first victory and for snapping a streak dating back to February 2019.
“We have a young team and we told them there are going to be runs where we make mistakes; the thing is you have to get by the mistakes and you can’t dwell on the
mistakes,” McCall said. “In the second quarter, they started to dwell (on the mistakes) and we had to calm them down and tell them to keep up the intensity on defense and the offense will come. That’s what they did: we have a system in place, and we played our system to the best that they could. It wasn’t perfect, but it feels good to get the
job done.
“I’m so proud of our kids, of course, and I’m so proud of my coaching staff for how they prepared our boys for this week. It’s a team effort, and I’m proud of what they all accomplished.”
It was an incredibly hard-fought victory for FHS, which had to kre
cover from nearly losing what had been a nine-point lead midway through the third: Fitchburg led most of the way, save a three-minute stretch late in the first half.
It also had to deal with an 0-for-11 start from the floor in the second quarter while the Panthers chipped away and managed to take a 21-18 lead after Connor Geary (game-high 19 points) hit some big free throws.
It wasn’t until Darnell Thomas’ 3point in the corner that Fitchburg found its scoring touch and Kenny Marte scored off Monty Graham’s helper with 22 seconds left in the first half to take a 23-21 lead into the break.
And after Fitchburg built the aforementioned nine-point lead, Quabbin whittled it down to two, 30-28, all from the free throw line after a pair of technical fouls.
The Raiders then restored the advantage to eight points after Gabe Rivera hit a pair from the line, followed by a Daniel Edmonds hoop and a Thomas basket off an offensive rebound.
The Red Raiders got a bit of momentum as Zion Ayala found himself fouled in the act of attempting a long buzzerbeater just as the third quarter expired.
He hit all three, giving FHS a 41-36 lead headed into the final quarter.
“We had to keep up the energy and the intensity,” McCall said. “We had to play our brand of basketball.
“We also got to see them for the second time tonight, and you know what they are going to come with so you can prepare a little bit better. Quabbin runs a phenomenal 3-2 zone, and that killed us Monday; we practiced that on Tuesday and Wednesday, and we adjusted when they switched to a 1-3-1.”
A quick dish pass from Graham to Rivera saw the latter draw the hack and add the harm from the line to make it an eight-point game again, before Geary hit a jumper. Rivera (12 points, five rebounds, five steals, three blocked shots) then hit a pair from the line, before Shea Skowyra scored to make it a two-possession game.
That was as close as Quabbin came, as Jorge Gaitan (team-high 18 points) hit 3s on consecutive trips, before he found Graham (eight points, eight rebounds) on the next trip.
Rivera then got the lead out to 16, 5640, with 2:27 remaining.
The Red and Gray brought an intensity to the floor that it hadn’t seen this year, thanks to the return of Graham, who picked up a few key rebounds early
and came up with some critical helpers in the first quarter, after he missed the first three games of the season.
“He was huge,” McCall said. “He’s a senior captain, the quarterback of the football team — he’s been in stressful situations — and he’s a leader. We missed that the first few games, that natural leader, and Montgomery brings that.”
And with Gaitan — out for Monday’s tilt — back and hitting three of his six 3pointers early, FHS managed to get out to an 18-10 lead after Darnell Thomas hit an old-fashioned three-point play with thirty seconds remaining in the first.
But Quabbin stormed back with three quick buckets in the first 4:21 — the only shots from the floor it would hit for nearly eight minutes of game time.