AMHERST — Sophie Gatzounas’ list of achievements in western Massachusetts basketball stretches as long as any individual.
She’s scored 1,000 points for South Hadley. She’s committed to play Division 1 basketball at Navy.
Up until Thursday night, the list still lacked a win at Curry Hicks Cage in the Western Mass. tournament.
Gatzounas and the Tigers took care of that in the Division 3 semifinals, beating Hampshire Regional 54-42.
The No. 2-seeded Tigers (22-0) will face No. 1 Hoosac Valley (20-2) for the title at 2:15 p.m Saturday at the Cage.
Hoosac has won four straight championships, including the last three in Division 3. South Hadley is looking for the program’s first title.
“I’ve never won at the Cage,” Gatzounas said. “Tonight was surreal.”
Gatzounas struggled to find her rhythm at times in the first half. She shuffled in and out of the game with foul trouble from guarding Hampshire senior Katy O’Connor.
“It kind of turned into that interesting play where I would only go in on offense and come back out on defense,” Gatzounas said. “It makes it hard to get into the flow of the game.”
Gatzounas sat for an extended stretch midway through the second quarter, while the rest of the Tigers kept No. 3 Hampshire at bay. South Hadley held a five-point lead when Gatzounas sat down with around five minutes to go until halftime, and the Tigers were up 22-16 when she returned with 1 minute, 35 seconds left.
“When Sophie comes out of the game it forces us to step up,” South Hadley junior Mikhaila Edge said. “We have to fill her spot.”
Gatzounas led the team with 17 points. Mia Kelly contributed 14, while Abby Edge added 10.
“They don’t just have one player,” O’Connor said. “You can focus all you want on shutting Sophie down, but they have a lot of contributing players that are going to score and help them.”
South Hadley focused its defense on O’Connor. She had 33 points and 22 rebounds in the quarterfinals to get to the Cage. She scored a season-low 11 and grabbed eight boards against the Tigers.
“We knew it was going to be defense that would do it,” South Hadley coach Paul Dubuc said.
Even with O’Connor’s scoring limited, the Raiders didn’t fold. Junior Katelyn Pickunka (17 points) and sophomore Caroline O’Connor (nine points) kept it a one-possession game in the third quarter. Pickunka hit a layup on a feed from Katy O’Connor to pull within 29-28 with 4:05 left in the third quarter.
South Hadley ripped off a 10-2 run over the next 3½ minutes to put the game out of reach.
“We hit big shots when we needed to,” Gatzounas said. “People stepped up and hit shots when we needed to, we got boards when we needed to. People made the right plays at the right times.”
South Hadley went 3-0 against Hampshire this season and set up a rematch with Hoosac Valley. The Tigers beat the Hurricanes 46-40 in Cheshire on Dec. 30. Saturday’s matchup will have much higher stakes.
“Our goal was go get where we are right now,” Mikhaila Edge said. “With the talent and heart we have now, I believe we can make it happen and with that Western Mass. title.”
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com.
South Hadley 54,
Hampshire Regional 42
Hampshire Regional (18-5)
Labire 0-0-0, Pickunka 7-1-15, Babyak 1-0-3, Abel 0-0-0, Labrecque 1-2-4, Pond 0-0-0, O. Aldrich 0-0-0, Dearborn, 0-0-0, C. O’Connor 4-1-9, K. O’Connor 3-5-11, S. Aldrich 0-0-. Totals 16-9-42
South Hadley (22-0)
O. Blaney 0-0-0, A. Edge 4-0-10, M. Edge 3-0-6, Kelly 6-1-14, A. Blaney 0-0-0, Murphy 0-0-0, Grochowalski 0-0-0, Gatzounas 5-6-17, Ippolito 0-0-0, Sears 0-0-0, Medina 2-0-5, Earle 1-0-2. Totals 21-7-54
|
Hampshire Regional |
10 |
8 |
13 |
11 |
—42 |
|
South Hadley |
13 |
9 |
19 |
13 |
—54 |
3-Pointers—Hampshire Regional 1 (Babyak), South Hadley 5 (A. Edge 2, Kelly, Gatzounas, Medina)