Cunningham a force for Hurricanes
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NORTHAMPTON
Early in the season, Rey Harp was busy telling everyone to beware of Amherst Regional this year.
The Blue Devils coach knew the Hurricanes would be a threat, despite going just 3-17 last season.
The biggest reason? They got senior forward Sean Cunningham back healthy.
"Any time you can put a kid like that into an already talented mix, that makes a huge difference," Harp said after his No. 1 Blue Devils escaped a Cunningham-led near upset Friday night. "Sean Cunningham is an outstanding basketball player."
Cunningham transferred from Wilbraham & Monson last year, but started the basketball season with his ankle in a cast and missed the first seven games of the 2008-09 season.
"He came back and played limited minutes in three games (in January 2009) just to see if he could go," coach Jim Matuszko said.
He could not and opted for surgery soon after.
"It was clear that I was injured," said Cunningham, who felt like he was back near 100 percent last summer.
After missing virtually his entire junior season, the Amherst resident made up for lost time as a senior.
Cunningham averaged 17.7 points per game, leading the Hurricanes to a nine-win improvement from last season.
"Sean is a natural leader on and off the court. He doesn't just talk it. He does it," Matuszko said. "The rest of the team is inspired by his ability to get to the basket. He makes his free throw shots, he can rebound and get putbacks. He plays both ends of the court and really hustles."
One of Cunningham's finest performances came in the regular-season finale, when he scored a career-high 34 points as the Hurricanes knocked off eventual No. 2 seed East Longmeadow on the road.
Amherst, which began the year 4-8 overall, won eight of its last nine heading into Friday's matchup with Northampton.
"It's been great. Last year, we had a really tough season. We knew that didn't represent the way we could play and the talent we had," said Cunningham, whose team won a western Massachusetts-best 10 road games this season. "This year, coming in, especially for me having to sit out all year last year, was a great experience. I had a lot of fun and we made a run."
Cunningham did everything he could on Friday to extend his high school career, notching a game-high 26 points, including scoring or assisting on Amherst's final 13 points of the second quarter to give the Hurricanes a 32-27 halftime lead.
None of this surprised Harp.
"We've seen him. Our programs are pretty close with the rivalry and everything else, so we are very familiar with him," Harp said. "But no matter how much you may know what somebody does, good players find a way to make it happen and he put us on our heels tonight."
Cunningham also spent much of the night guarding Northampton's top offensive weapon in Ellis Cooper, who finished with a team-high 19 points.
"We tried to put other guys on Ellis to rest Sean because we couldn't really give him too much of a rest tonight," Matuszko said.
Cunningham said he enjoyed the matchup one last time.
"Ellis and I are great friends. It's always fun playing against him," he said.
Cunningham is an honor roll student and National Honor Society member who is still narrowing his college choices from a list that includes Bates, Hamilton and Elms.
"On the court we're enemies, but off the court, we're best friends so it was a lot of fun," he said.
In the end, it was Cooper's squad that advanced to the semifinals, but Cunningham said he saw no reason for the Hurricanes to hang their heads.
"People thought we didn't have a chance to get to this point a couple of weeks ago," he said. "It's been great to really step things up and play the way we knew we could."
Jim Pignatiello can be reached at jpignatiello@gazettenet.com.
