SPRINGFIELD – Northampton lined up across from Central for the third time this season Tuesday in the Western Massachusetts Class A boys basketball quarterfinals. The result was the same as the first two times: the Golden Eagles won 85-54 to advance to the semifinals. They’ll host No. 4 Holyoke at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
But not all defeats are created equal.
“I think we’re a different team,” Northampton coach Rey Harp said. “I felt better about this performance than I did about the other two.”
Senior guard Ben Sledzieski gave the Blue Devils a (very) early lead when he hit a 3 to open the game. He scored a game-high 18 points on six triples.
The game was tied at 5 in the early stages before Central (15-1) ripped off a 15-0 run. It crescendoed when Joe Griffin hammered down a one-handed dunk with 5 minutes, 17 seconds to go in the first to make it 13-5. Harp called timeout, but the Blue Devils (10-8) couldn’t stem the tide.
“They’re a bunch of athletes, their whole team is athletes. We play fast, they play faster,” Sledzieski said. “We tried slowing it down, but they’re too fast.”
Central’s lead ballooned to 20-5 before Kelvin Perez ended the spurt with a runner in the lane at the 3:02 mark of the first quarter. He was one of Northampton’s missing ingredients in the first two matchups, scoring 11 points, along with Caleb Steineger.
Griffin went to the bench with 2:54 left in the first, but the Golden Eagles kept humming because of the depth they’ve cultivated. Four Central players reached double figures led by Diavin Reynolds and William Watson III with 15 each. An additional four players scored at least five points each.
“The thing that impresses us so much about them is they’re building their depth as they go along,” Harp said. “That’s a better looking team right now.”
Central led by 22 at halftime, at which point Watson, an all-state quarterback, announced his verbal commitment to play football at Nebraska. The extended break and lack of a huddle didn’t deter the Golden Eagles. Griffin opened the second half with a dunk, and they stretched their lead to 30 by the end of the quarter.
Northampton trimmed it back down to 21 after back to back floaters form Connor Tobin made it 74-53 with 4 minutes remaining. Tobin scored 12 points for Northampton.
.@CentralFB413 qb @ww3thefuture announced his commitment to Nebraska football #gbr pic.twitter.com/13f7vEBahM
— Kyle Grabowski (@kylegrbwsk) February 23, 2022
Unlike in previous seasons when a sectional loss would end the season, the Blue Devils close the regular season Thursday at East Longmeadow, which lost to Amherst in the quarterfinals Monday. Then they’ll likely continue to the lose or go home Division 2 state tournament next week. Northampton was ranked 27th in the most recent power rankings. The top 32 teams automatically make the field plus any other teams over .500.
“We’re not going to see a better team than this,” Sledzieski said.
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.