Class B girls basketball: Frontier dashes past Hampshire, 56-40

SOUTH DEERFIELD — The second-seeded Frontier girls basketball team put together an impressive performance in the quarterfinal round of the Western Mass. Class B tournament, with a 56-40 victory over seventh-seeded Hampshire at Goodnow Gymnasium on Wednesday night.

Opening the game, the Redhawks proved their 16-2 regular season record was no fluke, getting out to a substantial lead. Through just eight minutes, Frontier held a 20-5 lead over the Raiders.

As halftime and the third quarter passed, the Redhawks kept their foot on the gas, extending the lead to 52-20 heading into the fourth, a margin too wide for Hampshire to surmount.

“I thought the girls played really hard throughout the entire game, very proud of them,” Frontier head coach David Hastings said. “I couldn’t ask for anything more out of the effort and the intensity that they played with.”

The Redhawks did a great job dictating the pace of Wednesday night’s game, playing fast on both ends. On the offensive end, Frontier worked quickly, getting the ball up the court in transition and taking what the defense was giving them.

Defensively, the Redhawks played very aggressively, mixing in a full-court press at times. Even in the half-court, the team took every opportunity to trap ball-handlers and keep their hands in the passing lanes.

“All year long, we’ve been emphasizing the idea of playing some great defense,” Hastings said. “[Wednesday], they showed the level that they can play defense at.”

The Raiders found life in the fourth quarter, with the team never truly giving up until the final buzzer. After scoring just 20 points in the first three frames, the team put together another 20 in just the final eight minutes of play.

In addition to Hampshire’s success on the offensive end to end the contest, the team allowed just four points in the fourth after surrendering 52 through the first 24 minutes.

Despite facing the large deficit, the Raiders showed no quit, battling to get back in the game all the way through. As a young team that had three of its five players who recorded a point in either their freshman year or eighth grade, the group knows they have plenty of room to grow.

“For us, that showed how special we can be if we just keep fighting with these young girls,” Hampshire head coach Jason Plamondon said. “I want to win, I’m a competitor, but this was a building block for what we want to be and the culture we’re creating.”

Addie Miklasiewicz led all scorers with 18 points for the Raiders, with 10 of them coming in the fourth quarter alone.

Addie Harrington led Frontier in scoring on Wednesday, shooting efficiently from all three levels. The junior continued to build on an impressive season despite not seeing much playing time in the fourth quarter, finishing the night with 16 points in the win.

“Any team that has [Harrington] has the benefit of leaning on her, and the teams that don’t have her have to do certain things, like [Hampshire] tried to play a box and one on her,” Hastings said.

With the win, the Redhawks move on to play South Hadley in the seminfinal round of the Class B tournament. They’ll look to stay hot, now with six victories in a row, one of which was a 67-62 win over the Tigers on Jan 27.

“It’s been a long process throughout the year, with the coaching change this year, me coming in and trying to start from the basics and put some fundamentals in,” Hastings said. “I think they’re really buying into the process of what I want to see them do and they’re making it happen.”

The loss gives Hampshire a 12-7 record on the season, looking ahead to a potential run at the state tournament.

“We started 0-3, the sky was falling, and everyone said we were done,” Plamondon said. “But this team has fought all the way back. And if you told me we’d go in [to Frontier] and we’d fight for four quarters, I’d be okay with that… I’m very proud of them right now with the way they competed.”