Devils’ losing streak goes to three with conference loss to Fayetteville

By Mark Carpenter

People’s Defender

After opening their 2021-22 season with back-to-back wins over Southeastern and Lynchburg, Coach Nathan Copas and his North Adams Green Devils have hit an early season rough spot, dropping three consecutive outings, the latest being a 44-38 home loss to the Fayetteville Rockets on Tuesday, December 14 in Southern Hills Athletic Conference play.

The Devils have struggled offensively in their last two losses, just 24 points at Fairfield last week and then the 38 on Tuesday, but have still performed well on the defensive end, only allowing 43 and 44, but still coming out on the short end twice. In the Fayetteville loss, the Devils fell behind by double digits in the fourth quarter, then put together a furious rally that came up short in the end.

“We’re young, I keep saying that, and we just have to learn how to win these kinds of games,” said Coach Copas. “their length obviously cuased us problems but we have to find ways to overcome that. We had some early foul trouble and some starters on the bench which certainly didn’t help.”

The Devils got off to a good start on Tuesday, opening the game with baskets from Bransyn Copas and Avery Anderson, and then later stretched their lead out to 9-3 on a coast to coast drive by Cameron Campbell. a alter score by Carson Osborne pushed the North Adams advantage to 11-5 but the final bucket of the first quarter was a three-pointer by the Rockets’ Jayden Bradshaw to slice the home side’s lead down to three.

The length and athleticism of the Rockets is an issue for all their opponents and it began to show in the second period of Tuesday’s game. After a very long first possession, the Devils got a drive and score from Cameron Campbell, but they then went scoreless for over four minutes, In that span, the Rockets grabbed the lead and never gave it up.While the Devils were shooting blanks, Fayetteville went on an 11-0 run that began with an old-fashioned three-point play by A.J. Attinger and ended with a bucket by Blake Coffman that gave the visitors a 19-13 lead.

North Adams finally ended their scoring drought with a pair of Caleb Rothwell free throws at the 2:44 mark but the Rockets answered with a free throw and a bucket from Coffman to lead 22-15. In the final 23 seconds of the first half, Rothwell hit two more charity tosses and the two teams headed to the halftime break with Fayetteville in front 22-17.

Out of the break, the Rockets scored the first four points of the third quarter, bofore they received a delay of game technical and Copas hit one of the two free tosses. That Copas free throw was the only North Adams point until the 2:36 mark when the sophomore guard canned a baseline jumper to cut the Fayetteville lead to 29-20.

After a Fayetteville free throw, a Copas steal and score, and a bucket by the Rockets’ Bradshaw, the third quarter closed with the visitors holding a 32-22 lead.

Down double digits, the North Adams offense finally showed some spark as they opened the fourth period with a baseline jumper from Kamden Buttelwerth and then a long three from the corner by Caleb Rothwell. The Fayetteville lead was sliced in half as the Rockets were held scoreless for nearly three minutes, but the boys in green bounced back with a Coffman “and one” to push their advantage back to 37-27.

The Devils then answered that with a 7-0 run over the next minute, scoring quickly and a Campbell three-ball from the corner brought the home team to within 37-34, the closest they had been since Fayetteville had taken the lead in the second quarter. The Devils had the chance to creep even closer after a Fayetteville turnover but Anderson misfired on an uncontested layup and from that point on, the Rockets did their damage and sealed their deal from the foul line.

In the game’s final minute, Bradshaw hit five of six from the stripe, sandwiched around two baskets by the Devils’ Campbell, the last of those coming with just 6.5 ticks left on the clock to provide the final points in the Rockets’ six-point conference triumph.

The victorious Fayetteville squad placed a pair of players in double figures, led by 17 points from senior Jayden Bradshaw, with senior Blake Coffman adding 12. For the Devils, the high point man was Cameron Campbell with 12, joined in double figures by teammate Caleb Rothwell with 11, with Bransyn Copas adding 9.

The road for the now 2-3 Green Devils gets no easier this weekend as they will face a difficult conference road trip on Friday night, crossing the county line to face the Eastern Brown Warriors. On Saturday, the Devils will make the long bus ride to Indians and the “Hoosiers” Gym, where they will face a competitive group of Manchester Greyhounds.

In Tuesday night’s JV contest, Coach Blake Bradley and his JV Devils improved their season mark to 4-1 as they outlasted Fayetteville by a final score of 42-36.

VARSITY BOX SCORE

Fayetteville

8 14 10 12 —44

North Adams

11 6 5 16 —38

Fayetteville (44): Coffman 5 2-7 12, Holden 1 0-0 2, Wiederhold 1 0-0 2, Attinger 2 2-5 6, Tipis 1 0-0 3, Bradshaw 4 7-10 17, Snider 1 0-1 2, Team 15 11-23 44.

N. Adams (38): Copas 4 1-4 9, C. Rothwell 3 4-6 11, Osborne 1 0-0 2, Anderson 1 0-0 2, Campbell 5 1-1 12, Buttelwerth 1 0-0 2, Team 15 6-13 38.

Three-Point Goals:

Fayetteville (2)- Tipis 1, Bradshaw 1

N. Adams (2)- C. Rothwell 1, Campbell 1