WESTHAMPTON — While Smith Vocational fans had hoped to see senior point guard Dom Sanchez make history on Wednesday night at Zalot Gymnasium, the Hampshire Regional boys basketball team had other ideas.
The host Raiders held strong at home, denying Sanchez in his bid to reach 1,000 career points in the process. Needing 21 points to reach the milestone, Sanchez finished with 18 on the night, and Hampshire won its third game in a row thanks to a 71-59 independent victory.
The Raiders bumped their record to 5-3 on the season with the win, though head coach Dylan Rickles knows his team is capable of getting to another level.
“We’re definitely making a lot of progress, but we’ve got a lot to work on,” he explained. “Tonight, it was a little bit of a letdown. The score says we won, but I really feel like we didn’t play to the standard. My job is to hold them to the standard and tonight was not the standard that we’re hoping for our kids. But, I mean, I can’t really complain, we won three games in a row. But we have a lot to work on if we want to be the program and the team that we set our goals to be at the beginning of the year.”
A crowded gymnasium thought they might see Sanchez hit the 1,000-point mark, but it didn’t look promising early as he was held to just four points at halftime. Still, the point guard helped in other ways, dishing to teammates as the Vikings led 10-2 early.
Hampshire rallied behind junior Vynce Carr, who matched his season high with 26 points, and a 14-2 run put the hosts back in control. The Raiders ultimately led 31-23 at halftime.
Hampshire pushed its lead to double digits in the second half and rarely felt threatened, though Sanchez got to work offensively and looked like he might make history. He drilled a 3-pointer late in the third quarter then got to the basket for a few easy hoops while mixing in some free throws.
His layup with 5:27 to play cut the Vikings’ deficit to 60-48, and gave him 17 points on the night — just four away from 1,000.
He added another free throw with 2:57 to play to get within a 3-pointer of the mark, but the Raiders locked down over the final three minutes and extended his pursuit for at least another night.
“I don’t think Dom plays like he’s going to score 1,000 points,” said Smith Vocational coach Akara Holder, referring to his point guard’s ability to play within himself and stay unselfish. “And I’ve talked to him a lot about that, that he just has to play as if he’s at square one, and then the points will come. The fans might want something else, but he does a good job of staying within the flow of the game.
“We haven’t had a boys’ basketball 1,000 point scorer since, I think, 2007. So it’s been awhile. Dom’s got a lot of good composure. He’s a great basketball player, which is why he’s in this position. It didn’t happen tonight, but it’s going to happen. And maybe after this, some pressure might be off of him a little bit. But he’s still my main point guard so it doesn’t matter that he’s at this threshold during the game. It’s a thing outside, around the court, but in the game, I just want him to be the good point guard that he is.”
Rickles noted that while Sanchez’s pursuit of 1,000 points added a fun wrinkle to Wednesday’s game, it didn’t become an overarching theme, at least to his club.
“It wasn’t really on our minds,” he said. “I didn’t mention it a lot in the pregame, but then we got into that fourth quarter and we really wanted to make sure that we were playing just good, solid defense… playing in a stance, having a hand up, no easy baskets.
“He’s an elite player. He’s really good, and we had to make it difficult on him. He was getting a lot of points in transition and that’s why we went to that 1-3-1 [zone] and we were able to kind of stop that a little and get the ball out of his hands in the fourth quarter.”
Behind Carr, Braylon Jarrett scored 19 points for Hampshire, while Joseph Moro (11 points) and Kameron Locke (10) made it four players in double figures.
“Our program has definitely taken a step forward as far as how much pride we have,” said Rickles. “Hampshire has always had a lot of pride in our program and our home court, and it was great to see our gym filled tonight for this game.”
Sanchez’s 18 points led the way for Smith Vocational (2-4), which dropped its third game in a row after a 2-1 start. Josh Cole tossed in 11 points while Spencer Warner added nine.
“We’re in a hole, and we have to try to figure out how to climb out of that,” Holder said. “I don’t think the hole is too deep but we’ve got to figure out how to lift ourselves back up, and then stay up. You saw in the beginning of the game, we got off to a good start but then we had some bad passes, not getting back on defense… we were kind of forcing the ball instead of passing out. I think we’ll get there. Hampshire’s not in our league and they’re a good team. They move the ball very well, find the open man and then get out in open space for easy baskets. So we’ve got to work on our rebounding and getting back on D.”
Sanchez now takes his 1,000-point odyssey on the road to Buckland on Friday night, where he needs three points against Mohawk Trail.
Hampshire has the rest of the week off before an important Hampshire South game at league-leading Easthampton on Monday night.
