Everything was going smoothly for the Amherst girls basketball team at the start of the season. Coming off a 15-1 campaign, the Hurricanes picked up right where they left off, jumping out to a 8-0 start. The team was younger but talented, led by senior Delaney MacPhetres. The squad beat rival Northampton for the first time since 2012. They were ranked fourth overall in the MIAA Division 2 Power Rankings. Everything was going their way.
Until suddenly, it wasn’t.
The Hurricanes lost a heartbreaker to Wahconah on the road, a nailbiting 47-42 defeat that marked the program’s first defeat since February 2, 2021, nearly a year prior. There were a number of factors at play – Wahconah was a formidable opponent, and the Hurricanes struggled on both sides of the ball. Their on-court communication wasn’t up to its usual standard either.
“We had an hour-plus car ride home, and it was not a fun car ride to be in after a tough loss like that,” Amherst junior Tessa Kawall said simply.
Paradoxically, that loss could be the very thing that ensures the team’s success for the rest of the year. It was a wakeup call that reminded the Hurricanes what they were capable of, and nobody on the team let it rattle them for too long. They went home, watched some film, hit the floor for practice, and came out firing on all cylinders in their next game – a dominant 66-9 win against Granby last Friday.
“We hit a bump in the road the other night. We played a bad five minutes of basketball at the beginning of the game against a good team that’s really tough,” Amherst head coach Ralph Loos said in reference to the Wahconah loss. “Sometimes when stuff happens, you’ve just got to put it down and leave it behind. That’s all we want them to do, is just be us.”
This is a program that has been building toward this season for roughly three years, Loos said. Last year’s squad, which went 15-1 in a pandemic-shortened campaign that didn’t feature a postseason, had only four upperclassmen and graduated just two seniors. Nearly everyone else is back and better than ever after an offseason spent practicing together and preparing for what could be a long postseason run.
“Last year, we had a pretty special year.… We didn’t really need the reason of playoffs to play. We still played as hard as we could every game,” MacPhetres said. “We didn’t have something that we were necessarily working toward, but that didn’t stop what we were doing every day at practice.”
The Hurricanes (10-1) have outscored their last two opponents, Granby and Monument Mountain, by a margin of 136-40, and that offense has been on display for the majority of this season. They haven’t finished with fewer than 40 points in any game this season, breaking the 50-point mark in five of their 11 tilts so far. MacPhetres leads the way in scoring with 180 points this season – she’s just under 50 shy of the 1,000-point mark – but the team’s scoring depth is what sets them apart, with players like Kawall, Sara Hastie, Zola Higham, and Niyama Adadevoh contributing as well. Loos says that Adadevoh could be the best player in Western Mass. by her junior year.
Just as potent as their offense is their defensive scheme – they often play a matchup zone, which can look chaotic but is extremely effective, as well as some one-on-one coverage. But no matter what scheme Loos draws up, what he relies on most for his setups to work is connection and team chemistry.
“I think in the end it’s the same thing as offense – play together, be connected. Brad Stevens used to say it all the time (to the) Celtics, ‘Be connected,’” Loos said. “The worst phrase in basketball is man-to-man defense, because it’s not – it’s five against five, and that’s how you have to play it. I think they do a pretty good job of that most of the time.”
Like most successful teams, this Hurricanes group is very close. Their chemistry is clear when they’re playing together, but they often spend time together off the court, going to team dinners and hanging out during their free time. They also have a team teddy bear, Hurri, who serves as the squad’s unofficial mascot and gets passed around from player to player.
“I think that we all know each other so well and have played with each other for so long that we all know each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and also know when to pick each other up,” Kawall said. “Talking on the court and on the bench constantly is what helps us have such good communication that translates into our play.”
Perhaps the most dangerous thing about this Hurricanes team? MacPhetres is the only senior they’ll graduate after this season. She’ll leave big shoes to fill, but there are plenty of others who are more than capable of stepping up.
“When I took over, the big phrase we told them was ‘Don’t let good enough be enough,’” Loos said.
Based on what they’ve accomplished so far this season, the Hurricanes won’t accept anything less than a championship.
The Hurricanes next host Longmeadow on Thursday night.