GREENFIELD — It may have been only the first step in a long journey, but the Frontier Regional boys basketball team played every bit like the team favored to win the Hampshire North title on Thursday.
A dominant defensive performance and a relentless effort in the low post by its bigs helped the Red Hawks to a 55-33 win over Greenfield at Nichols Gymnasium.
“They’re a good team,” Greenfield coach Angelo Thomas said. “They are going to be a tough out in Division 3. They have three kids — 6-5, 6-6, 6-7 — and they can stroke, rebound and they have some guards who can hit some shots. They are a tough team.”
The Red Hawks (5-1) are led by their towers in the low post, brothers Carsten and Peter Carey. The brothers each stand around 6-foot-7 and control the paint on both ends of the floor. Carsten, a senior, made his defensive presence felt right away as he blocked a shot on one of the Green Wave’s first trips down the court. He finished with 22 points and over 10 rebounds.
Peter, meanwhile, is only a sophomore but plays much bigger. He is another shot-altering defender who can also get to the rim. He finished with 12 points, including a dunk.
“To have another guy my height on the court is great,” Carsten said. “There is so much we can do. We are getting better every single day, cooperating, learning how to play off each other’s strengths, and bringing out the best in both of us.”
Frontier coach Ben Barshefsky said that his goal is to get the ball to his talented big men and let them create from there, something that he felt was done in spurts on Thursday, but not as often as he would still like.
“They key to our offense is getting it high post and when we move the ball well and create passing lanes off of pass-fakes, that allowed us to get the ball to the high post,” Barshefsky said. “And then when we were able to distribute effectively from there, I think that hurt them the most.”
Greenfield (3-2) played scrappy and stayed with Frontier until the fourth quarter. The Wave looked to play up-tempo, in order to avoid getting into a half-court set and allowing the towering Frontier players to set up on defense, and Greenfield took a quick 4-0 lead two minutes into the game. Carsten Carey answered a 3-pointer by Greenfield’s Danny Vega by getting the ball in the low post and laying it in as he was fouled. He drained the free throw to complete the three-point play and Frontier quickly cut the deficit to 4-3. That set off a run for the Red Hawks that saw Frontier outscore the Green Wave 15-0 to end the first quarter and take a 15-4 lead into the second.
Carey made it a 17-0 run with a quick basket in the second, but back-to-back 3-pointers from Owen Phelps and Mason Meadows saw the Wave climb within seven. That set up as the theme of the night. Every time it looked like Frontier might run away, the Green Wave were able to claw back just enough to hang around. Frontier held a 10-15 point lead for much of the night, but Greenfield did cut it down to single digits at one point in the third quarter.
“We talked the whole game about how this is part of the process and going through these growing pains when you play a good team like Frontier,” Thomas said. “It’s a measuring stick. We play them the last game of the season and how much better are we going to get between now and Feb. 15. These kids practice hard. I have no beef with how hard they practice, but you can’t win games when you shoot 20 percent, and we did that tonight.”
Phelps led the Green Wave with 11 points in the loss.
Owen Morse had 10 points for Frontier.