CHESHIRE, Mass. – The Hoosac Valley girls basketball team used a 39-2 run that spanned the second and third quarters to pull away in a 85-28 win over Pioneer Valley Christian Academy on Wednesday in the Western Massachusetts Class D semi-finals.
The top-seeded Hurricanes led, 25-18, midway through the second quarter but closed the half by scoring the last 24 points.
They then outscored the visiting Eagles, 15-2, to start the second half, and take a commanding 64-20 lead with about 10 minutes left to play.
Ashlyn Lesure scored 19 points and passed out four assists. Taylor Garabedian scored 11 and pulled down 13 rebounds with three assists as Hoosac Valley (17-3) won its 10th straight game to earn a date in Saturday’s regional final against Pioneer Valley at Westfield High School.
The Hurricanes set the tone early on Wednesday night by attacking PVCA with their full-court press, an approach that Hoosac Valley coach Jon Frederick has not taken throughout the season.
“It’s something we’ve been working on,” Frederick said afterward. “We know we have to press if we’re going to move on,
“It was kind of good to get it under our belt, not against our JV kids [in practice]. We did press a little earlier than I wanted to, but we needed to work on it.”
The defensive pressure helped Hoosac Valley grab the lead with an 11-0 first-quarter run after PVCA scored the game’s first four points.
Abby Scialabba (eight points, eight rebounds) scored four points in the run, including a 3-pointer, and Hanna Shea (seven points) capped the run with a putback to give Hoosac Valley a seven-point lead.
The Eagles hung around, though, never trailing by more than nine and cutting the margin to five a couple of times.
Kylie Schmidt scored at the end of a press break play for the visitors to make it a 25-18 margin with about four minutes left in the half.
Then, the roof fell in for PVCA.
Hailey McNeice (eight points), Leisure and Maryn Cappiello dropped in 3s in an initial 13-0 spurt.
Then the Hurricanes got three turnovers out of their press and three baskets – one by Garabedian, two by Lesure – in about 30 seconds to make it 44-18 with 42 seconds left.
After a PVCA timeout, Lesure scored in transition and Shea beat the buzzer with a 3-pointer to give the Hurricanes a 49-18 lead in the locker room.
Frederick started to work his bench players into the mix in the third quarter, which saw starter Emma Meczywor take over with 10 of her 16 points.
The fourth quarter belonged almost entirely to Hoosac Valley’s reserves, who outscored PVCA, 19-4, to stretch the lead.
Next up for Hoosac Valley is Pioneer Valley, a team it last met in last year’s Western Mass semi-finals. The Hurricanes won that game, 70-46, en route to a Class D Championship.
