GREENFIELD — A year ago, Raegan Hickey and her Greenfield High School teammates solemnly walked off the floor at Curry Hicks Cage in Amherst with a season-ending loss to Hampshire.
Friday night’s postseason rematch provided a much more positive end result.
Hickey scored 15 points, going a perfect 8-for-8 from the free throw line to help the fourth-seeded Green Wave return to the Cage for the second year in a row behind a 60-33 victory over the fifth-seeded Red Raiders in the WMass Div. 3 quarterfinal round at Nichols Gymnasium.
It was fitting that Greenfield had to go through Hampshire (10-11), the defending WMass champions and eventual state runners-up, to punch a return ticket to the Cage. The teams met in quite the memorable affair last March in the semifinal round. The Wave led 53-50 with less than 30 seconds remaining, before Hampshire’s Madelyn Pond drilled a 3-pointer to force overtime. The Raiders took control late in the extra session, snagging a 63-59 victory to earn a spot in the Div. 3 title game.
“The girls wanted to play Hampshire,” Greenfield coach John Hickey said of Friday night’s rematch in the quarterfinal round. “Not because of anything else other than last year’s game. They wanted another shot. It’s always nice to get the opportunity a year later to play the team that knocked you out.”
In last year’s semifinal game, Hampshire star Katelyn Pickunka poured in 26 points to lead her team. The good news this time around was that Pickunka graduated, and overtime hero Caroline O’Connor, who scored seven of her 11 in the extra session, now attends Northfield Mount Hermon School. This year’s Hampshire team got into the postseason at 10-10 overall.
“I was excited to get to play them again,” Raegan Hickey said of Hampshire. “I wouldn’t have wanted to play anyone else. Without Pickunka they definitely aren’t the same team but they’re still really good.”
Pond was the main returning figure from last year’s game for the Red Raiders. She scored 14 points at the Cage, including the back-breaking 3 that force OT, and entered Friday night’s rematch as the team’s leading scorer at 15.9 points per game. Greenfield did a nice job against her, limiting the sophomore to 10 points — five in each half. She finished with just one 3-pointer.
“That last shot from Maddie Pond really hurt last year,” explained Raegan Hickey. “So we knew we had to key on her and I thought we did a good job against her.”
Greenfield and Hampshire have seen quite a bit of one another on the girls sporting scene throughout the past year. The Cage game got the rivalry renewed, and the Greenfield softball team exacted a bit of revenge in the WMass Div. 2 semifinals last spring behind a 5-1 win that ultimately propelled them to a sectional championship. Still, Friday night’s win was welcomed largely due to the fact that Hampshire ended the Wave’s hoop season prematurely just under a year ago.
“We were out for payback,” explained freshman Racquel Provost, who saw minutes as an eighth-grader in the semifinal loss a year ago. “It’s always a good challenge playing them. We wanted to play good defense, shut down Maddie Pond and get in the passing lanes.”
Greenfield (18-3) did just that. And as a result, the squad is headed back to the Cage for the second consecutive year after making their debut in 2018.
“It’s amazing,” said Provost, who finished with 9 points in the win, including a pair of 3-pointers. “And to do it with such an amazing group of girls like this is even better.”
Raegan Hickey hopes this year’s Cage voyage comes with a different outcome.
“We’ve played there before now, we’ve got experience in that environment so hopefully that will help us this time around,” she said. “We definitely want to take this thing all the way and win a title. We can’t take anyone lightly.”
The Wave hope to capture their first-ever victory at the Cage Wednesday night, when they’ll tangle with top-seeded South Hadley (16-5) at 7:30 p.m.