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Nate Powers of Holyoke Catholic shoots during a game against South Hadley on Thursday in Chicopee. Powers scored his 1,000th career point against Granby on Friday.

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JERREY ROBERTS

Nate Powers of Holyoke Catholic shoots during a game against South Hadley on Thursday in Chicopee. Powers scored his 1,000th career point against Granby on Friday.

CHICOPEE - Rare is the game where, at the conclusion, both teams emerge from the locker room with smiles and laughter, ready to celebrate the night away.

But that was the case at Chicopee Academy, where the game belonged to the Granby boys basketball team - who rolled to a 77-56 win over Holyoke Catholic - and the night belonged to Nate Powers.

With an impressive layup off a feed by John McCoy seconds into the second half, Powers became the 10th player in Holyoke Catholic history to join the 1,000-point club.

"I didn't really try to think about it too much but it's kind of hard to not think about it," Powers said. "I didn't really know when it was. I thought I got it in the second quarter and they just forgot to do something, so I thought, 'That's alright, I'll just play the rest of the game normally.' And then I got it, sure enough. Johnny McCoy gave me the pass, so that was pretty good."

Entering the game 15 points shy of 1,000, Powers started things quickly by scoring his team's first five points and racking up 10 in the first quarter. He finished with 20 points before fouling out late in the third.

"I'm really happy for him. He's a great kid and a good player," Holyoke Catholic coach Bob Prattico said. "It would have been nice to get a victory as well, but we didn't, so on the happy note, he was able to get the thousand."

Indeed, the win was Granby's, which rode double-digit scoring performances by five different players and a seemingly unstoppable perimeter shooting attack. Corey Baker led all scorers with 21 points, followed by Liam Galloway (13 points), Jesse Molin (13), Aaron Gaj (12) and Andy Gifford (11).

"We shot the ball really well tonight," said Rams coach Tim Sheehan, whose team is now 8-3. "We got good shots, we made the extra pass, we got guys the ball where they're supposed to be able to score. It's been something we're working on and we did a good job of that tonight."

In addition to Powers, McCoy had a solid game for Holyoke Catholic (2-8), scoring 16.

"We had a good run against this team the first time we played them, but they came out like a fire was lit under them," Powers said. "I don't even know if they missed. They were just hitting them behind the arc. That was a very tough one."

Despite the loss, Powers and the rest of the Gaels reveled in their own celebration. Upon scoring his milestone basket, Powers immediately passed the game ball to his family in the stands. It is that family that has provided both his support and his motivation over the years, particularly older brother Kyle, a member of the 1,000-point club himself and the all-time leading scorer at Chicopee High School.

"He's definitely my biggest role model. Watching him get it when I was probably 10 years old, that's always been a goal ever since I started playing, to be like him," he said. "I give my dad and my brother all the credit in the world because they put the ball in my hands from a very young age."

And while Granby enjoyed a victorious ride home, Powers also prepared himself for a celebration, with his blood family and his basketball family waiting for him.