SPRINGFIELD — The season may have come to an end Tuesday night for Frontier Regional girls basketball team in its 35-25 loss to Sabis, but the season of improvement wasn’t lost on the young team.

The 10th-seeded Red Hawks (10-11) couldn’t complete the Western Massachusetts Division 3 Tournament first-round upset over No. 7 Sabis (11-10), which will go on to face Hoosac Valley in the quarterfinals. Still, the postseason experience was invaluable to a team full of mostly sophomores as they look to continue to improve.

“A lot of improvement,” coach Betsy Sobieski said of the season. “They stayed on task and no doubt we’re an athletic team, we just have to use our athleticism to our advantage.”

The Red Hawks played with playoff intensity on the defensive end in the first quarter, making for a competitive game throughout. They were first to the floor for loose balls, allowing them to maintain a slight edge in the early going.

“Defensively we did a great job of denying Safaire (Bryant) the ball,” Betsy Sobieski said. “Amelia (Sobieski) did a great job getting a touch on that and then we reacted well.”

Tied 6-6 at the end of the first quarter, both teams went on short runs. Sabis struck first, finding some success getting the ball inside to Bryant, going on a 4-0 run. Frontier fought back, locking down defensively and answering with a 6-0 run. The Bulldogs, though, grabbed two offensive rebounds and tied the game 12-12 at halftime.

In the second half, the Red Hawks struggled pushing the ball and initiating the offense the way they wanted to. The offense never seemed to get into a flow, especially as the game went on.

“They just got us rattled a little bit on the offensive end,” Betsy Sobieski said. “We weren’t smart about the move we put on and moving the ball around. We worked hard but the turnovers were the deciding factor.”

The Red Hawks had 16 second-half turnovers, compared to eight in the first half. That allowed Sabis to get out on the fast break and extend its lead. Bryant started to get the ball more down low and gathered several offensive rebounds, scoring eight of her 14 points in the second half for Sabis.

“It just broke down for us and we just lost that edge on getting to the ball quicker,” Betsy Sobieski said. “We still boxed out decently, Charlotte (Doulette) had a great game inside boxing out and getting those boards.”

Amelia Sobieski scored seven points to lead the Red Hawks and Doulette had six. Ariana Walker, the only senior on the team, hit a big 3-pointer in the third quarter to cut the lead down to one at that time.

“Really proud of these girls,” Sobieski said. “Ariana had a great game, she’s going to go on to do great things in college. These girls really turned it around, they played hard and I’m just really proud of them.

Sabis 35, Frontier 25

Frontier (10-11)

Walker 1-0-3, Mackin 1-3-5, Sobieski 2-3-7, Doulette 3-0-6, Deane 2-0-4, Diemand 0-0-0. Totals 9-6-25

Sabis (11-10)

Borders 1-0-2, Skarzynski 1-0-2, Lizana 0-4-4, Barklow 3-3-9, Charles 2-0-4, Bryant 7-0-14. Totals 14-7-35

Frontier

6

4

9

4

—25

Sabis

6

6

12

11

—35

3-Pointers—Frontier 1 (Walker)