NORTHAMPTON – Ashley Vazquez stood at the free throw line, alone, keenly aware of her struggles there.
The Holyoke girls basketball team led host Northampton by seven points as the halftime buzzer sounded, but a Blue Devils foul sent Vazquez to the free throw line. She sank the first to make it an eight-point game.
With the second free throw in the air, Vazquez stepped back off the free throw line with her right arm holding the follow through. She turned away from the basket as the ball snapped through the net. Vazquez already knew it was good.
“My teammates get on me a lot for missing free throws. I’ve been working really hard on them,” Vazquez said. “Making them made me feel proud of myself. The crowd was chirping in my ear, so I was glad to quiet them down.”
Holyoke carried that confidence into the second half and took down Northampton 62-46 on Tuesday to win for the third time in their past four games. The Purple Knights avenged a five-point defeat from mid-January in Holyoke.
“Having this win showed a lot of people how we should really be playing, and it was a big win for us,” Holyoke senior guard Yamaya Perez said.
Perez was a big part of it. She scored 21 points – her 3rd 20-point game this season – and hit three 3s in addition to orchestrating the Purple Knights’ offense. She needs just 50 more points for 1,000 in her career. Holyoke next plays Friday at Central.
Both teams traded baskets for the game’s first 10 minutes. Teagan McDonald gave Northampton (8-4) a 16-15 lead after a strong drive to the basket with 6 minutes, 10 seconds to halftime.
Then Holyoke ripped off a 15-2 run. Kleriz Matos hit a 3 to give the Purple Knights an 18-16 lead, followed by a Perez 3, a Perez steal and banked 3, and a Perez steal and layup. She poured in eight points in a minute and a half.
“When we’re in transition, we’re a way better team than when we settle and we just like try to play one on one,” Perez said. “I feel like when we’re playing in transition and looking for each other, we’re just a way better team.”
Vazquez, who finished with 12 points, rolled in a layup to make it 29-18 with 3:10 to halftime.
Northampton’s Chloe Denhart, who led the Blue Devils with a career-high 21 points, ended the run with a 3 at 2:34 to make it 29-21.
The Blue Devils clawed back as close as seven when another Denhart 3 made it 38-31 just 1:25 into the second half. Holyoke (7-4) outscored them 14-5 over the rest of the quarter.
“They’ve played basketball together a long time,” Holyoke coach Andrea Enright said. “So when they’re clicking, it’s a beautiful thing to watch.”
The lead grew to as many as 17 in the fourth quarter. Matos was left open for a 3 with 6:44 left that she splashed to put Holyoke up 55-38. Later, Bianca Ortiz timed a cut to the basket perfectly, and Perez dropped her a pocket pass for a layup with 4:26 remaining and a 59-42 advantage. Ortiz scored 13 points with two 3s.
“We didn’t keep them out of the paint, we didn’t rotate, we didn’t close out with a hand up in the face,” Northampton coach Perry Messer said. “You’ve got to tip your hat to them, they made plays, and we aren’t tough enough down the other end of the floor.”
The Blue Devils were playing without three of their top players. Leading scorer Ava Azzaro missed the game, and No. 2 scorer Bri Heafey is out for the season with a torn ACL. Northampton’s only senior Riley Allen also didn’t play.
“I knew it was going to be a little bit emotionally hard for our guys because they’ve been feeling a little bit sorry for themselves,” Messer said. “Nobody’s gonna, you’ve got to stick in it and compete.”
The game featured two of the top teams in the state’s Division 2 Power Rankings. Northampton entered the contest at No. 9, while Holyoke was 10th.
“People will tell me the rankings. I’m stressing out one game at a time,” Enright said. “As a group of coaches, definitely, it’s talked about a lot.”
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.