CHESHIRE, Mass. – With 30 seconds left in Friday’s home opener, the Hoosac Valley girls basketball team had a five-point lead.
But South Hadley was on a four-point run.
Emma Meczywor put a stop to that by putting back an offensive rebound.
Her bucket settled the game down and sent Hoosac Valley on to a 48-42 win and a 2-0 record on the young season.
For the game, Meczywor had 15 rebounds to go with nine points, helping Hoosac Valley counter the Tigers’ height advantage.
“Emma is a beast,” Hoosac Valley coach John Frederick said. “She works hard on it. She prides herself on getting down and dirty and saying, ‘I’m going to fight for every ball I can possibly get my hands on, regardless of where it is.’
“She’s huge for us. We expect big things out of her. But, honestly, I expect big things out of all the juniors and seniors this year.”
Junior Ashlyn Lesure scored a team-high 15 points on Friday, including six in the fourth quarter to help put the game away. She also had four steals.
Senior Abby Scialabba matched Meczywor with nine points and pulled down five boards. And senior Taylor Garabedian gathered 10 rebounds.
“They’ve been playing together since third and fourth grade,” Frederick said of the Hurricanes’ upperclassmen. “It’s a pleasure to coach these kids, because they just have so much familiarity with one another.”
South Hadley Friday got 12 points and nine rebounds from Cara Dean and 15 boards from Kate Phillips. Caitlin Dean pitched in with eight boards.
“[South Hadley’s height] hurt us quite a bit,” Frederick said. “We’re not very tall across the board, at all, other than Taylor. I actually thought [the Tigers] were small until I saw them walk in the gym, and I was like, ‘Oh my God.’
“But I said the same thing about Hampshire. I thought Hampshire was small when I saw them at Taconic, but they’re not. I think we’re probably the smallest team. But I just told the girls: You’ve got to make yourself as big as you can, get your hands up. Let’s get our hands in those lanes, and we make up for it that way.”
South Hadley held a narrow 11-10 lead after one quarter.
But Hoosac Valley took the lead for good with a 7-0 run to close out the second quarter.
Lesure started that stretch with a free throw to cut into a two-point Tiger lead. And her lay-up off a possession started by a Tiger turnover against Hoosac Valley’s press gave the hosts a 23-22 lead they never lost.
Garabedian scored in the post to make it a three-point margin, and Lesure scored again after a turnover generated by the press to give Hoosac Valley a 27-22 lead in the locker room.
The Hurricanes forced 11 turnovers in the second quarter – six from the press.
“The second quarter was good,” Frederick said. “We’ve been working on the press a little bit. As you know from last year, we’re really not a pressing team, per se. But they had [Drew] Alley taken out with the three fouls, so we knew they were a little short with ball handling.
“So we said, ‘Let’s try it. Let’s see if we can take a little bit of an advantage here.’ And it worked out pretty good for us.”
Hoosac pushed its lead to 11 points midway through the third quarter when Meczywor scored in transition to make it 38-27. But South Hadley closed the quarter with seven straight points to get back within four.
The Hurricanes will put their unbeaten record on the line on Wednesday when they host Wahconah.
“I think that the two wins we’ve had have been battles, and I expect another one,” Frederick said. “It kind of stinks that we start off with divisional games, and we’re all beating each other up at the beginning. And then we get into the independent games at the end of the year.
“But I’m sure Wahconah’s going to bring it. Hopefully, we’re going to do the same thing we did to them here last year and come out with another ‘W.’ Go on to Pittsfield on Friday.”
