Greenfield High School opened its season nearly a monthly and a half ago. That’s also the last time the Green Wave lost a game.
After that lopsided setback to defending western Massachusetts Division III champion and state finalist Hoosac Valley High School, Greenfield has reeled off 10 consecutive victories, the latest being a 68-20 conquest of Smith Academy in a Franklin County League South Division girls’ basketball contest at Webb Gymnasium in Hatfield.
“As a team we had 20 assists,” said Green Wave head coach John Hickey. “They’re very unselfish and share the ball a lot.”
However, he added, “sometimes I have to beg the kids to shoot, but that’s a good problem to have because I can fix that. The girls are trying to make that extra pass to get higher percentage shots.”
Greenfield (10-1 overall, 4-0 FCL South) extended its lead to a full game over idle Turners Falls High School (7-4, 3-1). The teams meet for their rematch Thursday night in Turners Falls. Greenfield won the first meeting, 44-23.
Samantha Smith and Raegan Hickey led the Green Wave to its easy win Monday. Smith got things done on both ends of the court, as she drained a game-high 20 points and registered 8 steals, while Hickey recorded a double-double with another solid all-around performance, totaling 12 points, 10 assists and 7 rebounds.
While the rest of the squad was contributing to a stellar defensive performance, team members also spread the scoring. Katie Haselton, Kirsten Ward and Molley Duclos all finished with 8 points, and Elizabeth Howland and Leah Bosco both threw in 6.
Olivia Cavanaugh led the Falcons with 6 points.
Greenfield led 32-11 at halftime.
The Green Wave also qualified for the WMass Tournament with Monday’s victory, but Coach Hickey knows his squad has plenty of work to do over the final nine games before being battle-tested for the start of the postseason.
“We need to keep improving in every aspect of the game — defense, passing, rebounding and shooting,” he said. “We just have to keep moving forward, working hard in practice and taking things one game at a time.
“We’ve been playing pretty good half-court defense,” he added. “It’s led to more turnovers and helped us get a lot of transition baskets. Plus we’ve been running the floor, filling lanes and finishing.”