GREENFIELD — Things did not come easy for the Greenfield High School offense on Friday night.
Hampshire defensive intensity early on caused plenty of problems for the Green Wave offense, but Greenfield was able to match that intensity on its own defensive end and eventually pulled away for a 60-33 victory in the WMass Division 3 quarterfinals at Nichols Gymnasium.
The victory sends the fourth-seeded Green Wave (18-3) back to Curry Hicks Cage for the WMass semifinals after Greenfield played there last season. The Wave was denied a chance to play for the WMass championship by none other than Hampshire, which ousted the Green Wave in overtime during last year’s semifinals and went on to win the WMass tournament and finish as State runners-up. Green Wave senior center Samantha Smith said that getting a chance to return to the Cage and take another run at a title is exactly what the team was looking for.
“It’s the best feeling,” Smith said. “Senior year, you just want to go all the way in every sport. You take it one step at a time, though, and the Cage is the next step.”
Hampshire threw everything it could at the Green Wave offense early as it tried to limit Smith, who had a large size advantage over the Red Raiders. Hampshire coach Amy Cyr had her team face-guarding and double-teaming the Wave’s leading scorer, and it was effective in taking Smith out of the game, which seemed to hinder the Wave’s offense. The Red Raiders had momentum early on and led 4-1 until the midway point of the first quarter. Greenfield eventually tied the game on free throws, but didn’t score its first field goal of the game until a Raegan Hickey 3-pointer with 1 minute, 36 seconds to play in the frame. That opened the flood gates a bit in the final 90 seconds, as Racquel Provost followed with a 3-pointer with 15 seconds left, and Olivia Joy scored on a layup with 5 seconds left to open up a 12-4 lead after one quarter.
While the Wave offense was beginning to get going after the slow start, the Hampshire offense had a power-outage after the first two minutes. After Madelyn Pond scored with 5:27 to play in the first quarter to give Hampshire the 4-1 lead, the Raiders did not score again for the remainder of the first quarter. In fact, the team went nearly seven minutes without a point as Greenfield went on a 15-0 run that ended when Delaney Marek hit a free throw with 6:31 left in the second quarter. The biggest reason for the struggles was a Green Wave defense that was matching Hampshire’s defensive intensity and caused the Raiders to continually turn the ball over.
“Turnovers have been an achilles heel of ours all season and when things are going well offensively, defensively we are mentally tough, but when we turn the ball over, we tend to build frustrations and lose that momentum we really need,” Hampshire coach Amy Cyr said. “We need to work on consistency.”
While Greenfield kept a comfortable lead, it was never able to pull away in the first half due to the frustrations of Smith and Haselton, who were both clearly agitated at times during the game. Smith had just two points until the final two minutes of the second quarter when she scored the Wave’s final six points before the half. Haselton, meanwhile, had just six points in the first half as well, including four from the free throw line. Both players worked hard on the defensive end and eventually both got going to each finish in double figures. Hickey said that for Smith, even if she is not directly scoring, she can affect the game in other ways.
“When you draw attention like that, you just have to work that much harder,” he said. “Sam just has to work harder in the post. She knows that and we’ve talked about that. When she started crashing in the second half, even if she didn’t get the rebound, other people did, because she was doing that.”
Hampshire was able to hang around for much of the stanza and went into the locker room down 29-15, but the Green Wave continued to pull away in the third quarter as they outscored the Red Raiders 16-9 to increase the lead to 21 heading into the fourth. Hampshire never got closer than that and both teams emptied their benches late.
“It was a little sloppier than I’d like. Twenty two turnovers isn’t what any coach wants to see,” he explained. “Our defense was pretty good, though, and kept us in it at times. We just kept playing through it. We just have to take care of the ball better, play with a little more composure, and we’ll be fine.”
The Wave defense was led by freshman guard Racquel Provost and sophomore guard Haselton, as they took away Hampshire’s guards, who do much of the scoring. Hickey lauded the play of Provost, who also scored 9 points on offense.
“Racquel is solid. She is one of our best perimeter defenders,” he said. “I can put her on anyone and I know ‘Rocky’ is going to take her away.”
Raegan Hickey paced the Green Wave offense with 15 points, including shooting 8-for-8 from the free throw line. Smith netted 13 points, and Haselton added 12 points, eight of which came from the line. Bryanna Rivera added 5 points, and Kristina Reed chipped in 4.
Pond led Hampshire with 10 points, and Delaney Marek finished with 8. The Red Raiders started four sophomores and one senior in the game, so the future remains bright in Westhampton.
“I think for some of them it was a difficult year, because last year was such a journey,” Cyr said. “But I keep reminding them that we are still on that journey, and all these experiences are building to where we are going to be. The future looks good.”
Greenfield 60, Hampshire 33
Hampshire (33)
Labrie 1-0—2, Pellegrini 1-0—2, Taylor 0-2—2, Rubeck 2-0—5, Labrecque 2-0—4, Pond 3-3—10, Marek 3-2—8. Totals 12-7–33.
Greenfield (60)
Rivera 2-0—5, Provost 3-1—9, Haselton 2-8—12, Hickey 3-8—15, Joy 1-0—2, Reed 2-0—4, Smith 5-3—13, Kuchieski, Pruitt-Dahl, Kachelmeyer, Richardson. Totals: 18-20–60.
3-Point Goals: (H) Pond, Rubeck. (G) Rivera, Provost 2, Hickey.