HOLYOKE – Holyoke guard Aden Cabrera nicked the ball from a Westwood player, weaved through a maze of green jerseys in the middle of the court, almost tripped, caught his balance, dribbled past another green jersey and then dished the ball to Davian Diaz. Cabrera’s backcourt mate canned a 3-pointer from the wing to stretch the Purple Knights’ lead to five points in the final minute of the first quarter.

On the next possession, Holyoke’s press was back at it. Cabrera stole the ball again and took it himself – this time for a layup. On the very next play, the ball squirted out from a mass of players and Cabrera picked it up, took a quick look at the clock running down and finger-rolled it into the basket as the buzzer sounded to finish a 7-0 run. In the blink of an eye, Holyoke took a 20-13 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Led by frenetic guard play by Cabrera, Diaz and Shawn Rivera, No. 8 Holyoke rolled to a 73-66 win over No. 9 Westwood at John “Jinx” O’Connor Gymnasium to advance to the MIAA Division 2 quarterfinals on Monday night. Diaz led all scorers with 23 points, while Cabrera had 16 and Rivera had 14 on a night where big man Jamil Rodriguez was held to just two points.

“Energy is the biggest part of the game,” Diaz said. “So I feel like the energy brought us defense, and the defense brought us points.”

Whenever Holyoke (15-7) turned on its press – at the end of the first and second quarters and also in the fourth – Westwood struggled to get past halfcourt. That was by design. Holyoke made the trip to watch Westwood’s Round of 32 game against Masconomet Regional and had also seen several of their games on film. They knew the Wolverines would be susceptible to their full-court press.

Midway through the second quarter, Holyoke held a 28-26 lead before employing the press and going on a 13-2 run to end the half. Cabrera made a pair of free throws after an acrobatic drive to the hoop, Rivera made a deep 3-pointer on the right wing, Diaz made a corner 3, Rivera knocked down another long bomb and then capped the half off with a tough drive to the rim. All of a sudden, it was halftime and the Knights led 41-28.

“When we get going, we keep the energy up, that’s what I like about us,” Rivera said. “Once we get that energy up, no one’s taking us down.”

Though Holyoke didn’t have any runs in the second half that rivaled their first half performance, the Purple Knights stayed ahead by double digits for most of the remaining minutes to advance to their second Division 2 quarterfinal in three years after missing the tournament entirely last season.

When his players are rolling like they were for stretches against Westwood, head coach Juan Maldonado knows that opposing coaches will need to burn timeouts to stop their momentum.

“Our practices are like that live…that’s how we practice,” Maldonado said. “We know we’re under control and composed in games like this, whereas the other teams might not have practices like that.”

Tuesday, Holyoke is looking to take a team bus to watch the Sweet 16 game that will decide its opponent for the Division 2 quarterfinals. No. 1 Malden Catholic, two-time defending state champions, host No. 16 Shepherd Hill at 5 p.m.