WILLIAMSTOWN — There were smiles, hugs and high-fives on the Lenox sideline.
"It's a great feeling" to get a first win for new coach Lenny Miller, said Jason Sibley. "Day in and day out, we work our butts off. I can't be more proud of these guys.
"Coach Miller coming back out for us means a lot for the team. He's a great coach and we're all excited to play for him."
Miller, who is the only active Berkshire County basketball coach to take two different schools to an MIAA state championship game, returned to the Lenox sidelines for the first time in some three decades. Miller's Millionaires got 15 points each from Seamus Cooney and Duke Jaehnig as they pulled away in the third quarter and held off host Mount Greylock 54-45 Wednesday night.
"Actually, I am having a lot of fun," a smiling Miller said before the game. "I have a passion for basketball. I have a great assistant coach [Alex Cotton] who I'm mentoring and he's been exceptional. He's been so good to work with.
"I'm finding out that coaching is a lot harder than it used to be."
It was the first win of the season for Lenox, which dropped its opener to Hoosac Valley and then the Bi-County West opener against Mount Everett.
The game was tied 14-14 after one quarter and 22-22 at halftime. Greylock's Logan Fitzgibbons opened the third quarter by getting inside to score a basket, giving the Mounties a 24-22 lead. It was the last time Greylock led.
After a Greylock turnover, Tyler Giardina penetrated into the lane and kicked the ball out to Cooney on the right wing, and the Lenox junior calmly drained the second of his three 3-point baskets. Then, after Greylock's Brady Auger missed from outside the arc, Giardina got the rebound and triggered a break. He found Sibley in the left corner for one of Sibley's three treys. All of a sudden, it was 28-24.
Those back-to-back 3-pointers were the story of the third quarter. At one point, Lenox was 5 for 8 from long range and ended up shooting 6 for 12 in the stanza.
"Once one of us starts hitting it, we're all going to start hitting them," said Sibley, who had three of Lenox's 10 3-pointers in the game.
Consecutive 3-pointers by Lenox's Dylan Blake extended the Millionaires' lead to 44-31 but Greylock's Kayde Boucher scored with 18 seconds left and it was 44-33 after three quarters.
Greylock came out and cut the lead from 14 points to 9 after a Thomas Warren hoop made it 50-41. Miller called timeout to reset his defense, and the Millionaires held the Mounties to just two baskets in the final 4:44, as the home side just couldn't catch up.
"In the last game, we turned it over and it led to" points, Greylock coach Tommy Verdell said. "This game, we didn't get the ball under control. I just told them in the locker room, good defenses are rotating with a purpose. When you are rotating with no purpose, aka scrambling, that's when the game is on their terms."
Cooney had a big night with his 15 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three steals. Jaehnig had five rebounds and three steals to go with his 15 points, while Sibley scored 9 and pulled down a game-high 11 boards.
For Greylock, Auger scored 11 of his 13 points in the first half, while Fitzgibbons had 9 points and seven rebounds. Warren also had seven rebounds and two blocks.
This is Miller's second stint as a head coach in Lenox. He had a 62-0 record from 1981-84, won Western Massachusetts titles in 1982 and 1983, and finally won a Division III state title in 1984. Those Lenox teams in '82 and '83 could not play for a state title due to the tax-limiting Proposition 2 1/2 that forced the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association to cancel state tournaments.
Miller also coached the Monument Mountain boys and the Pittsfield girls. His 1986-87 Pittsfield team went 22-2 but lost 43-38 to Haverhill in the Division I final.
He was inducted into the Berkshire County Girls Basketball Hall of Fame in 2023 along with his daughter Cathleen.
"These are a great group of kids to work with," Miller said of his current team. "They're young. It's a young team. We have a couple of freshmen, we have a sophomore, we have a junior who didn't play varsity. They're all coming. They're all getting better."
Miller is nothing if not a basketball guy. His children, Lenny Jr. and Cathleen were both standouts at Monument Mountain, and both went on to play at Williams College. Cathleen was a star on the women's team, broke the 1,000-point mark and is 11th all-time in Williams history with 1,149 points.
"The hardest [adjustment] is the 3-point shot," the old/new Lenox coach said. "We had a little bit of it. If you remember, Lenny and Neil Ivey were great 3-point shooters [at Monument]. We took maybe one-third the amount of shots that they take now."
Miller said he's played catchup, and has sought advice from a number of current coaches.
"Randy Koldys is really helpful to me. He said defenses haven't changed much, but the offensive side has changed a lot," Miller said. "I've watched tons of video. I've gone to Williams College practices. I've talked to Randy. I've talked to other coaches.
"I'm sort of getting up to speed."
Mount Greylock is back in action Saturday at home against St. Mary's of Westfield. Lenox is off until Dec. 30, when the Millionaires host Southwick.