EASTHAMPTON — A smothering Frontier Regional full-court press caused plenty of turnovers and missteps for Easthampton Thursday.
The Red Hawks girls basketball team defeated the Eagles 46-20.
Lisa Portier led Frontier with 16 points. She was proud of the way her team performed knowing what was at stake.
Frontier (7-10, 4-2 Franklin North) is making a push to qualify for the postseason.
“I am so proud of this team,” she said. “We were not doing that well in the first half, so we brought the energy back up for the second half. This was a really important game for the tournament, so I am looking forward to our next game on Saturday.”
The Red Hawks took their time on offensive and gave up good shots for great shots to obtain a 13-4 lead heading into the second quarter.
However, down the stretch in the second quarter, Easthampton (5-13, 0-7) started to get open shots. Although the Eagles did not finish a high percentage of them, Easthampton’s offense was working to get opportunities.
While Frontier led 21-10 entering the locker room, coach Marty Sanderson felt his team was not playing to their maximum potential. To rejuvenate his team, he and his coaching staff implemented a full-court press to get the team to play with more passion.
“We were hoping to get the energy up a bit more with the press, which seemed to work,” said Sanderson. “I thought the kids got after loose balls harder and seemed to play defensively with more passion when we were pressing, and that helped us get the big lead.”
The Red Hawks exploded. Frontier caused several turnovers and turned them into points on the other end. The Red Hawks also ran a pick-and-roll offense in the second half that Easthampton had trouble defending.
Foul trouble also plagued Easthampton, which lost point guard Karina Volpe for a considerable amount of time.
“She started getting in foul trouble and that pretty much took us out of the game,” said Easthampton assistant coach Joe Roy. “She is our point guard and we have a lot of girls that are still developing at that position, and their press was quite effective. We started to turn the ball over more because of that. That’s pretty much the bottom line.”
With the regular season winding down, Roy wants his team to finish strong and stay positive.
“Just keep moving forward,” said Roy. “We are a young team with only two seniors, we just have to take it game by game and focus on the things that we have done right.”
Frontier faces Hopkins Academy for the second time this season on Saturday. In the first matchup, Frontier edged Hopkins 47-44 on Feb.10.
Sanderson is ready for another wire to wire battle.
“It will be another hard fought game,” said Sanderson. “We are headed to their home court so that makes it tougher, but I expect it to be a down to the wire game again.”