GRANBY – You could feel the excitement and tension in the air the moment the South Hadley and Granby girls basketball teams stepped on the court Tuesday night.
Like most rivalry games, the contest between the two squads was fast-paced and physical, but the Tigers managed to prowl away with a 43-29 win, thanks in large part to a dominant second half and persistent defense.
“It kind of got away from us in the third quarter. I really liked our effort, but our execution could have been better as far as the second half,” said Granby head coach Mike Afflitto. “Give South Hadley credit, they sped us up a bit, put us in situations we didn’t want to be in. That third quarter really made the difference, though.”
The game was tight through the first half, with Granby holding on to a slim two-point lead after the first quarter before the Tigers led by just five points at the half. That was in large part due to the Tigers struggles at the rim; though they were getting plenty of shots off, they just couldn’t get the ball to fall where they wanted it to.
“The first quarter we definitely weren’t making a lot of layups,” said South Hadley senior Talia Uribe. “But we we talked to the team, we were like, ‘We need to get our head in the game and we really need to start making layups if we want to win this game.’”
With their focus renewed, South Hadley (2-0) came back in the second half firing offensively, outscoring Granby by a 23-15 margin after intermission.
Uribe led by example when it came to the layups, consistently driving through the paint and finishing all game long. She and teammate Olivia Marion co-led the Tigers with 13 points total.
South Hadley head coach Paul Dubuc said Uribe leads both on the court and the bench.
“She does everything,” Dubuc said of Uribe. “She’s a senior captain, she’s a leader. She’s always playing somebody bigger. She touches every line at practice. She does everything you would want a captain to do. She’s the best.”
But it’s not just Uribe that contributed to the Tigers’ win – it was their depth on the bench, and the ability of everyone on the court to contribute, that ultimately sealed the win for them. Besides Marion and Uribe, Meg Carey also hit double-digits in scoring, contributing 10 points, and Alex Jackson added five of her own.
What tipped the scales in South Hadley’s favor was its stifling defense. Playing man-on-man most of the evening and employing a killer press on and off, the Tigers forced the Rams to make mistakes, and capitalized on opportunities whenever they could. It’s still a work in progress, according to Dubuc, but you wouldn’t know it watching them play on Tuesday.
“We’re hot and cold,” said Dubuc. “But we talked about controlling what we can control, so if we don’t shoot good, we try to play good D every night. They’re buying in.”
Most of Granby’s offense went through either Ella Laliberte or Gabby Walz – the two combined for 17 points (nine and eight, respectively). Two incredibly athletic players, the Rams just couldn’t keep up with the Tigers for the entire contest, and South Hadley made an concerted effort to shut Laliberte down in the second half.
The effort was there, said Afflitto. His team just needs to catch up when it comes to executing the plays.
“When Granby (and) South Hadley match up in anything, it’s a little bit of a rivalry, close towns and what-not. So you know, we were expecting that kind of fight, we were expecting a faster-paced game,” said Afflitto. “We were definitely prepared. It was just more so our effort was there and the execution wasn’t. So that will be the building block from tonight.”