WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- One big shot and one big stop equaled a second straight win to open the season for the Monument Mountain girls basketball team on Tuesday night.
Lenah Helmke led a balanced scoring attack with 11 points and made a big defensive play in the closing seconds as the Spartans handed Mount Greylock a 44-41 setback in the Mounties' season opener.
Abby Dohoney hit a shot from the right wing off a pass from Evi Higgins with 1 minute, 20 seconds left, to snap a 41-41 tie.
After the teams traded a couple of empty possessions, Mount Greylock took the ball under its own basket with 13.6 seconds left.
The Mounties got the ball into the paint, but Helmke stole the ball and drew a foul with .2 seconds on the clock.
She then hit the front end of a one-and-one to provide the final margin of victory.
"We've been really working on rebounding and being aggressive under the hoop," Helmke said. "I think that's what I was thinking about: boxing out and trying to get the ball in our hands. Making sure we didn't foul, but also making sure we got the ball and we controlled it. And we were in control in those last couple of seconds, and that was all I was thinking about."
Mount Greylock coach John Jacobbe said his team had trouble getting into the play it wanted to run in the closing seconds and was not able to adjust.
"We didn't set the first screen," Jacobbe said. "It was bright lights, first night, and, as a coach, we haven't done enough situational basketball. And, in our first game, we had a situation.
"I thought we had good options if we ran it, and we struggled getting to our spots. We struggled creating if the play breaks down, so we've got to learn how to play basketball if the play breaks down. And we've got to learn how to run plays when we need to make plays."
Abby Scialabba scored four times from behind the 3-point arc on her way to a game-high 14 points for Mount Greylock, which got 12 points and 13 rebounds from Charlotte Coody.
Elee Hull scored nine, and Maya Valasco and Higgins added eight and seven, respectively, for the Spartans.
The biggest lead for either team all night was six points. Monument Mountain near the end of the first quarter got a triple from Higgins to take a 22-16 lead.
Mount Greylock came back with six straight points: four from Molly Sullivan in the post and and a basket from Coody to start the second quarter.
The Spartans built at three-point edge at half-time and led by six again at the start of the fourth quarter on another Higgins 3-pointer to make it 38-32.
But Mount Greylock climbed back into the game, tying it on Emma Newberry's 3 with about two minutes left to go to make it 41-41.
That ended up being the last points of the night for the home team as Monument Mountain picked up its first win since the 2019-20 season in a hostile road environment.
"It's been refreshing to have, even at home or away, crowds back in the gym because it fires everybody up," Hull said.
Hull and Helmke grabbed nine and eight rebounds respectively in a strong night for the Monument Mountain front line.
"I think also a lot of our guards who tradition ally play guard are super important on the inside," Helmke said. "That's something we're just discovering this year. Our bench is so deep with inside players, but they can also play outside. It's super important."
Monument Mountain (2-0) will look to stay unbeaten on Friday when it hosts Drury, which opened Tuesday with a win over Belchertown, the Spartans' first opponent of the season last week.
Mount Greylock (0-1) goes to Springfield International Charter School on Friday night.
"As a coach, you lose by [three], you're super proud of your team battling back several times tonight," Jacobbe said. "But I told my players: What little things can I do better to help turn that around.
"It was a great high school basketball game, and we came up short."
