Harrington's Triple Lifts Wahconah Past Hoosac Valley
CHESHIRE, Mass. – Wahconah ninth-grader Brooke Harrington made a 3-pointer in the final minute of a defensive battle to give her team the winning points of a 45-40 victory at rival Hoosac Valley.
What she did a few seconds later impressed her coach even more.
“To knock down the foul shots, I thought, was really, even more clutch,” Liz Kay said.
“You’re not thinking when you’re shooting 3s. You’re a freshman. You don’t even know time and score. But you know time and score when you’ve got to make two free throws to make it a two-possession game.”
And Harrington, who had five of her nine points in the final minute of play, did just that, converting both her foul shots to provide the final margin of victory with 18.7 seconds left and help hand Hoosac Valley its first loss of the season.
Madison McCarthy scored 14 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Danielle Hagmaier finished with eight points and seven boards, and Harrington had seven rebounds and a pair of assists to go with her scoring.
Wahconah played uphill most of the night and trailed, 35-30, when Hannah Lord scored for the Hurricanes with just less than two minutes left on the clock.
But Wahconah (5-2) closed on a 10-0 run to win its third straight game.
McCarthy got the winning run started with a 3-pointer to make it 35-33.
Then Anna Doyle got a steal out of Wahconah’s press to give her team a chance to tie it for the first time since half-time.
“I think the pressure was good, the rotations were decent,” Kay said of her defense, which forced 21 turnovers and held Hoosac Valley (5-1) to its fewest points since a 58-34 loss to Wahconah back on Dec. 8, 2022.
“We’ve got a lot of sick kids right now as well, so I thought they dug pretty deep, especially when they were tired and some of them couldn’t breathe. They had more faith, I think, than I did, to be honest with you, given how they looked the last couple of days and how sick they are.”
Hagmaier, another ninth grader, scored in the post to tie it with 1 minute, 15 seconds on the clock.
The teams then traded misses and defensive rebounds until Harrington took a pass from Gianna Heilbroun on the right wing a good five feet beyond the 3-point arc and launched what proved to be the game-winner.
“Maybe I shouldn’t yell, ‘No,’ when she’s shooting it,” Kay said with a wry grin. “She’s a freshman, but I’ve seen her play for a number of years, and that is exactly what Brooke will do. She will throw it off the backboard and miss a layup, but she’s not afraid of big moments.”
Following the free throws to make it a five-point margin, Hoosac Valley got the ball into the front court and had a try in the post that rimmed out. There was a held ball on the rebound that went to the Hurricanes, but there was not enough time to get another good look at the basket, let alone the second possession Hoosac Valley would have needed.
The Hurricanes had the better of a low-scoring first quarter, taking a 12-4 lead on the strength of 3-pointers from Emma Meczywor (12 points) and Reagan Shea.
But Wahconah answered in the second quarter, briefly leading when Melaina Haczela drained a 3 to make it 16-14 with a minute left until half-time. The Hurricanes’ Maryn Cappiello (seven points) scored in transition with an assist from Ashlyn Lesure to make it a 16-16 game at the break.
Hoosac Valley then scored the first six points of the second half to regain the lead, which it kept until the last couple of minutes.
Both Wahconah’s Kay and Hoosac Valley coach Jon Frederick agreed that battling for 32 minutes will pay off for their teams after each had a couple of mismatches in the first few weeks of the season.
“We kind of needed a game like this to see where we are,” Frederick said. “I think we needed it more mentally than anything. Physically, I know where we’re at. But, mentally, to get into a game like this and get a lot of the kids who haven’t played onto the court … It kind of hurt us in key moments that they just didn’t know how to react, which is difficult.
“[Wahconah’s] younger kids stepped up. My younger kids, maybe not so much. But they didn’t quit. Neither team quit, which was good to see. So the next one in 10 days, I guess, will be another good one. … But, yeah, this was good for us.”
Hoosac Valley faces another tough test in the near future when undefeated Pittsfield visits Cheshire on Thursday.
Wahconah is off until Monday when it hosts Hampshire.