Hoosac Valley Girls Cruise into Sweet 16

CHESHIRE, Mass. — The Hoosac Valley girls basketball team took care of business with an emphatic win over Norfolk Aggie, 63-13 in the first round of the Division 5 State Tournament on Thursday.

 

Hoosac Valley came out from the opening tip ready to kickoff their state title run. As the No. 1 seed in the tournament you have certain expectations, and those were met here in the first round. The Hurricanes jumped out to a huge lead in the first quarter holding Norfolk Aggie to zero points

 

Hoosac scored 23 and were really dialed in with their full court pressure. Every pass Norfolk attempted it seemed like a Hoosac player was first to tip or intercept it. It was a well balanced scoring night for the whole team with starters getting limited minutes with such a lopsided score. 

 

Ashlyn Lesure led the way with 14 points, while Hanna Shea added 12. Hoosac had 10 different scorers in the game and really put this one out of reach in the first half. 

 

Norfolk Aggie didn’t score its first points until midway through the first half when they finally stopped a 29-0 run. Hoosac Valley would take a 48-4 lead into the break.

 

“Every game we’re going to get the other team's best shot so we need to know that coming out the gate regardless of the seed we’re playing,” Hoosac Valley coach Jon Frederick said. “We didn’t really know much about them but we came out and played good out the gate which is good because that’s not normally the case. We hit some early shots and kept it going.”

 

With the game well in hand, Hoosac Valley looked to the bench for some quality minutes. They were able to battle back and forth holding the first string of Norfolk County to just nine points. It was a much more relaxed half but Hoosac was still able to outscore them 15-9 en route to the win.

 

“It’s important to get the younger kids in. We tailed off a little bit in the second half but when these younger kids get the chance they need to know what to expect. This is how they get better with minutes regardless of who they are playing,” Frederick said.

 

Hoosac Valley (18-3) will look to keep its 12-game win streak going in the Round of 16 against Mahar (10-11), which beat Lee in overtime on Thursday night on a day to be announced.