ORANGE — For 16 minutes, the Mahar Regional School faithful squirmed nervously in their seats. Just one night removed from a disappointing upset postseason loss in Grzesik-Bixby Gymnasium, fortunes were skewing towards a potential second straight home defeat.
But the fifth-seeded Senators righted the ship, came out on fire in the third quarter and escaped trouble to advance in the Western Massachusetts Division III Girls’ Basketball Tournament. One night after the boys’ team watched its season come to an untimely end, Mahar assured at least one more game in its season Tuesday night with a 54-44 victory over No. 12 Frontier Regional School in an opening-round contest.
The win — the third of the season against the Red Hawks — propelled Mahar into a quarterfinal-round matchup against No. 4 Greenfield High School Friday night at Nichols Gymnasium.
“We’ve given them some long talks on what it’s like in the postseason and they got to experience a little bit of what that’s all about tonight,” said Mahar head coach Larry Fisher, whose team improved to 16-5 with the win. “It’s hard to beat a team three times in a season and (Frontier head coach) Marty (Sanderson) had a great game plan against us. We were a little bit out of sync but other kids stepped up when we needed them.”
The similarity of Tuesday night’s game to the teams’ most recent meeting was striking. Just eight days earlier, the two sides met in South Deerfield and things played out almost identically. Frontier executed its game plan in the first half, storming out to a 20-16 advantage at intermission — the same halftime score as last week’s meeting. In Tuesday’s game, junior Ella Deane (12 points) drilled a 3-pointer late in the second quarter, and a turnaround bucket from classmate Lexa Boyden enabled the Hawks to gain the 4-point halftime advantage.
“We executed well in the first half yet again,” offered Sanderson, whose team finished its season 9-12 overall with the postseason defeat. “I’m proud of the kids for staying with the game plan. We’re young but this experience of being in a postseason game was important for us.”
Despite holding a lead at the break, Frontier was dealing with some extensive foul trouble to Marie Diemand and Kate Hickey, who had three fouls apiece in the opening 16 minutes.
Mahar senior Cassidy Verheyen was held to just one point in the first half while picking up a pair of fouls, but the momentum shifted back toward the Senators almost immediately in the third quarter. A 12-0 run to open the half was jumpstarted by hoops from Hannah Paul and Kenzie Tenney, while Victoria Tenney sank a pair of jumpers as part of the surge that turned a deficit into a 28-20 lead with 4:07 left in the third.
“There was no big message at halftime, just win one quarter at a time,” Fisher explained. “They were still confident and still had their composure, so they just had to go out there and do it.”
The lead grew to 33-22 with 2:04 left after Verheyen hit a pair of free throws. To Frontier’s credit, however, the Hawks didn’t fold with things slowly slipping away. Hickey drilled a 3-pointer and Helena Diaz added a hoop to pull Frontier within 33-27 with the third quarter buzzer in sight. But Mahar played until the buzzer and Victoria Tenney stole the ball and hit a deep 3 just as the horn sounded, extending the advantage to 36-27 entering the fourth.
“I thought early in the second half we could’ve folded after (Mahar) made that run, but that wasn’t the case,” lauded Sanderson. “That (Mahar) 3 hurt, though. A nine-point (lead) versus six points was big.”
Frontier had one final run left to start the fourth, as the Hawks opened the stanza on an 8-2 mission behind Diaz and Lisa Portier. The pair sank back-to-back hoops to pull within three (38-35) with 6:03 remaining, but the Senators, buoyed by a resurgent Verheyen, rose to the occasion. A three-point play from the senior, coupled with a 3-pointer from Abby Bonk, got things back on track, and hoops from Kenzie Tenney and Paul put the advantage back at double figures, 49-37.
“We were able to stifle (Frontier) with our press in the second half … that’s kind of how we managed to beat them the last game as well,” Fisher explained.
Sanderson concurred.
“We turned it over too much in the second half,” he said. “I thought (Mahar) struggled scoring against our half-court defense but, unfortunately, they were able to get buckets in transition and they killed us on the glass for the third game in a row.”
Kenzie Tenney led Mahar, which won its first postseason game since beating Frontier in the 2013 tournament, with 11 points. Verheyen joined her in double figures with 10 points. Paul and Victoria Tenney completed the balanced offensive attack with 9 points apiece.
Deane’s 12 points were a game-high for Frontier. Diaz added 10 points, including 7 in the second half, while Portier added 8 and Boyden chipped in 7.
Mahar will meet Greenfield (19-1) Friday night for a spot in the D-III semifinals and a trip to the Curry Hicks Cage. The Green Wave won the only meeting between the two teams during the regular season, 66-52, back on Jan. 16.
“They’re a good young team and (Greenfield coach) John (Hickey) does a great job with them,” said Fisher. “We’ll do some different things than last time and see how it goes for us. It would be nice to get back to the Cage, nice for the kids to be able to go.”