NORTHFIELD — Entering the week, the Pioneer Valley Regional girls basketball team was on the outside looking in on making a WMass tournament appearance.
The Panthers record stood at 4-7, but they came out swinging this week. Pioneer started it with a loss to a talented Frontier team, but took the Red Hawks right down to the wire. It then went on to blow out Baystate Academy and on Friday, the Panthers fought their way to a 45-32 independent win over Athol, keeping their postseason hopes alive.
“We’re feeling pretty good,” Loughman said. “We’re ready to make tournament. We need to turn the intensity up and keep going. I think we can do it. We all really want to go.”
Once again, it was the dynamic duo of Loughman and Steph Scoville that powered Pioneer (6-8) to victory.
Both finished with double-doubles for the Panthers, Loughman scoring 18 points and snagging 12 rebounds while Scoville had 11 points and 10 rebounds.
Most importantly, both leaders were able to come away with key baskets when their team needed them the most.
The Pioneers held a 33-22 lead after three quarters, but a 6-0 run by the Red Raiders (6-10), all points coming from Haley Bigwood, got Athol back in the game.
While the Red Raiders were chipping away, the Panthers were losing steam on the offense end. A series of empty possessions began piling up on top of each other, and with three minutes left in the quarter, Pioneer had failed to add any points to the scoreboard.
Off a stalled possession, the Panthers were inbounding under their basket with just two seconds left on the shot clock. A great inbounds play got the ball to Scoville on the left block, who drained the shot to extend the Pioneer lead to 35-28 with 2:55 to play.
“That was huge,” Panther coach Michael Churchill said. “That’s a play we’ve drawn up and used a few times to varying degrees of success. Whenever we can get that pass and a clear shot, Steph is a killer from there.”
The shot injected life into Pioneer, as a minute later, Loughman took it coast-to-coast, using a euro-step to finish in traffic and put the Panthers by nine, 37-28, with 1:50 to play.
From there, the Panthers were able to knock down free throws to seal the win, with eighth grader Kaitlin Trudeau, who got the start, banking home two shots late.
“We’ve had a couple of three game weeks in a row which wears you down a little,” Churchill said. “The intensity was down on defense so at halftime we talked about bringing the intensity up in the third and fourth quarters and trying to drive the lead up by a couple points at a time. We wanted to use our speed, use our legs to push the tempo. Getting contributions up and down the lineup makes it easier.”
A low scoring first quarter saw Loughman take over late, scoring nine points in the quarter, to put Pioneer up 14-7 after one. The Panthers jumped ahead in the second, but freshman Emma Bacigalupo scored six of her 10 points in the second quarter to keep Athol alive. Taylor Cleveland knocked down a close shot and Bigwood drained a deep two right before the half to cut the Pioneer lead to six, 23-17, at the midway point.
Churchill wanted his squad to come out firing to start the third quarter of play and his team did just that, opening the half on a 9-0 run, capped off by a 3-pointer by Loughman, to put his squad back in the drivers seat.
In his first year as the head coach, Churchill knew it would take time to get his team buying into his message. Now that they have, a tournament run is now in their sites.
“You are what your record is,” Churchill said. “We’re making changes and moving in the right direction. Early in the year, new coach, new philosophy, it takes a while for everyone to gel. Now, the girls are playing hard, we’re getting contributions from the bench that we were struggling to get earlier in the year and getting open shots.”