NORTHAMPTON – What do you call a run that lasts an entire quarter?
The Northampton girls basketball team scored the game’s first 20 points Tuesday against Brattleboro Union and never looked back in a 56-25 home win.
The Blue Devils’ press, which they’d refined over their eight-day break without a game, made it nearly impossible for the Colonels to get the ball over halfcourt in the first quarter. Northampton regularly stole inbound passes and laid the ball right back up.
“We had a lot of energy going in, so we could be as aggressive as possible,” Northampton’s Chloe Denhart said. “The press sets the tone early.”
Northampton led 20-0 after the first quarter, and Brattleboro didn’t score until a Kiki McNary free throw put the Colonels on the board 45 seconds into the second. The run pushed out to 26-1 over the game’s first 12:48 until Diamund Bedward sank a straight-on 3 for Brattleboro’s first field goal with 3:12 to halftime.
“We’re trying to jump down people’s throats,” Northampton coach Perry Messer said. “We put a lot of pressure on people, and we’re looking for each other a lot better now. When we are converting the steal, we’ve got our heads up looking for cutters.”
Despite Northampton’s dominant start to the game, the Blue Devils’ offense couldn’t keep up the pace in the second quarter. Brattleboro played them to a 9-9 second quarter and entered halftime trailing 29-9.
“We got into that same mode where we have one quarter where we stopped playing good offense,” Messer said. “I mean, we must’ve had eight shots at the basket and never finished one of them. We’ve got to clean that up.”
The second half was squeaky. Northampton (5-1) opened the third quarter with a 10-1 run over the first 3:34 while rotating through its bench.
Nine Blue Devils scored, led by Bri Heafey’s 14 points. She hit two 3s in the third quarter. Denhart and Chloe Derby each added 12 points.
Sofia Ciaglo held McNary, Brattleboro’s leading scorer, to just five points, only one of which came before the fourth quarter.
“We have a lot of depth on our bench so we know we can work as hard as we can and we know we have a sub coming on,” Heafey said.
The lead stretched to as many as 35 in the fourth quarter when Jordan Hutchins hit a fast break layup with 2:14 left that made it 56-21.
“We’re playing a lot of youngsters,” Messer said. “We still haven’t had one of those games where we get all of our guys clicking on the same cylinders.”
Northampton has found ways to win in spite of that. Tuesday’s victory was the Blue Devils’ fifth in a row after a season-opening loss to Amherst. They’re not scheduled to play at home again until Jan. 21 against Taconic with their next four scheduled games on the road.