Five minutes separated Hoosac Valley from a berth in the Western Massachusetts boys basketball Division III tournament.

The Hurricanes had roared back from a 10-point deficit in the third quarter to take a lead early in the final stanza. Visiting Pittsfield, knocked out of tournament contention in its most recent game, had other ideas.

The Generals outscored Hoosac by 15 points over those final five minutes to beat the Hurricanes 65-52 Monday night, knocking the Hurricanes out of contention in Division III.

Edwin Rodriguez, who was saddled with first-half foul trouble, scored 13 of his game-high 20 points in the fourth quarter, draining three, 3-point baskets down the stretch. In fact, he scored all 13 of his fourth-quarter points in the last five minutes. It was a 17-2 run that did the Hurricanes in.

"I didn't want to knock them out of the playoffs, but I also wanted to finish out on a high note," Pittsfield's first-year coach Brandon Mauer said. "They were really hurting for a win, and I feel like we were hurting for one too. We've had a lot of really close games."

It took the Hurricane players and coaches a little while to come out of the locker room. Hoosac coach Mike Larabee was very matter-of-fact about the loss.

"We threw the ball away" with four turnovers in those final five minutes, Larabee said. "It's been like that all season long. We come down to crunch time and we can't finish anybody off."

Hoosac (9-11, 2-6 Berkshire North) committed 15 turnovers in the game, but 10 of them came in the second half. Nine of the 17 points Pittsfield (9-11, 3-5) scored in that game-ending run came off of Hoosac turnovers.

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