High school basketball: Pioneer girls, Mahar boys eyeing Western Mass. titles
Published: 02-23-2024 4:59 PM |
It’s Championship Saturday for two local high school basketball programs.
The Pioneer girls and Mahar boys will look to add some hardware on Saturday when they both take the floor to play in Western Massachusetts championship games.
The Panthers get a quadruple-header of games started at Westfield High School, when they play the opening tilt at noon against top-seeded Hoosac Valley in the Class D final.
No. 1 Mahar will meet Granby in the Class C boys basketball final, set for 5 p.m. at Holyoke Community College.
Here’s a closer look at Saturday’s title tilts, which will both be broadcast on Bear Country 95.3 FM.
The Panthers return to the sectional championship for the first time in 25 years.
Pioneer (15-5) last made an appearance in a WMass final back in 1999, the second of back-to-back finals where the Panthers lost to powerhouse Lee.
The Hurricanes (17-3), meanwhile, are no strangers to the big stage. Hoosac Valley has won four consecutive sectional titles, and seven of the last eight overall.
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The top-seeded club has won 10 games in a row overall, with the last loss coming on Jan. 24 against Wahconah. In the Class D tournament, Hoosac won both its games by 50-plus points, with wins over Smith Academy (74-19) and Pioneer Valley Christian (85-28).
Pioneer has also run hot of late, winning six games in a row including postseason victories over Duggan (63-25) and Monson (50-33). The Panthers have done it with their defense, holding all six opponents to under 40 points during that streak.
Pioneer and Hoosac met in last year’s Class D semifinal round, with the Hurricanes capturing a 70-46 victory en route to winning the sectional title.
It hasn’t been quite as long for the Senators since their last sectional final appearance, but it’s been over a decade since they played in a WMass title game. That would be 2012, when Mahar navigated its way through the Division 2 bracket and won the state title.
The Sens beat South Hadley, 47-31, in the WMass final that year, and eventually took down Brighton in the state final.
Defense has propelled this year’s Mahar team. The Sens have allowed more than 50 points just five times this season, and limited Athol to just 37 in their semifinal win on Thursday night in Orange. The defense has had shades of 2012, when that unit locked down just about every side that got in its way.
“I got to see Phil DiPhillipo before the [Athol] game,” Mahar coach Chad Softic said of his point guard from the 2012 team. “He talked to the team before the game. It gives you goosebumps. It was great seeing him and seeing him talk to the kids. It was pretty special.”
Mahar (15-5) will look to get past a Granby team that went into North Adams and pulled out a win over No. 2 Drury on Thursday night. The Rams haven’t played in a WMass final since 2005, when they won the Division 3 title.
“Just confidence,” Softic said of the matchup. “We need to concentrate on ourselves first. We need to be confident and dialed in to our attention to detail. Those are things that have hurt us this season, especially on the road. We know we can play with them, we’re just going to be mentally tough and more on point with the details to get a win.”
Granby (14-5) has won three games in a row and seems to be peaking at the right time, picking up playoff wins over Palmer (51-36) and Drury (51-46). Expect this game to be low scoring, and a grind to find much offensively with two good defenses setting the tone.
Mahar’s game with Granby is the third and final game of a tripleheader at HCC that begins at 1 p.m. with the Class B girls final between South Hadley and Pittsfield. Lenox and Renaissance will meet for the Class C girls title at 3 p.m.
Two local athletes will test their mettle against the best the state has to offer on Saturday at the Reggie Lewis Athletic Center in Boston.
Pioneer’s Louise Flagollet and Mohawk Trail’s Chay Mojallali both qualified for the MIAA Meet of Champions, and are set to compete in the high jump.
Just a freshman, Flagollet, who was the Division 5 state runner-up in the high jump, is seeded 15th in the event, while Mojallali, a junior, is the No. 19 seed in the boys high jump.
Action begins in Boston at 10:30 a.m.