WARE — Unfortunately for the No. 9 seed Pioneer Valley Regional School girls’ basketball team, the third time wasn’t the charm.
After two regular season losses to top-seeded Ware High School, both by a two-point margin, the Panthers again fell to the Indians, this time by a score of 53-44, in the quarterfinals of the Western Massachusetts Division IV Girls’ Basketball Tournament Thursday night.
Things started on a high note for the Panthers. After each team committed a turnover on its opening possession, junior guard Brianna Jobst hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key for the early lead. After Ware tied the score at 3s, Jobst struck again for Pioneer, draining another trey for the 6-3 advantage.
Ware scored the next four points, putting the Indians up by one, but Pioneer ended the frame strong by going inside to freshman forward Olivia Rowe, who hit one of two foul shots and followed that up with a lay-in off a rebound, and Pioneer was up 10-7 after one.
The second quarter also started well, with Jobst banging home another 3-ball 45 seconds in, but that’s where the good news ended for the Panthers. Ware scored the next eight points, first on a coast-to-coast layup by sophomore guard Jordan Haigas. Junior guard Michelle Zawalski then came up big for Ware, hitting two 3s after consecutive empty possessions by Pioneer, giving the Indians a 15-13 lead.
Pioneer tied the score at 15 on another put-back by Rowe, but that was as close as the Panthers got for the rest of the evening. Ware then embark on a 9-0 run to take a 24-15 lead, and after junior forward Alexis Vergobbe broke the run with a lofted 6-footer, Ware ended the quarter scoring the last five points, the last of which was a long trey by sophomore Natashia Sawabi. The Indians put up 22 points in the frame to the Panthers’ seven.
“We kind of stopped controlling the ball in the second, weren’t grabbing the rebounds as hard as we should have and we gave up too many second-chance points,” said Pioneer head coach Meg Burrington. “We also laid off some of their non-shooters, and they hit some big shots. We took a gamble and guarded their high scorers a little more heavy, and it didn’t work out so well.”
Five different Indians players scored in the quarter, and Ware headed to the locker room with a 29-17 lead.
The third quarter was much of the same at the start, with Ware using a 10-2 run to bring the lead to 20 at 39-19 with 4:47 remaining in the stanza. The Panthers did not fold, however, and scored 12 of the next 16 points to make it a 12-point game at 43-31 to start the fourth.
A trey by Pioneer junior guard Logan Anderson with 6:05 cut the lead to 10 at 47-37, and the Panthers had a little life. They matched the Indians step for step and cut the lead to 9 at 52-43 with 1:30 to go, but could not make up any more ground, and after a couple of fouls, the Indians walked off the floor 53-44 winners.
It was the last high school game for two Pioneer seniors, Alyssa Smiarowski and Alyssa LLewelyn.
“It’s certainly going to be a loss in leadership, but we have eight juniors and a bunch of young kids ready to step it up for next year,” said Burrington.
As far as Thursday’s performance goes, Burrington left the court very proud of her team.
“A nine-point loss to the one seed, I’m happy with that,” said Burrington. “I can’t be upset with that.”