AMESBURY — Amesbury’s Avery Hallinan proved to be a problem for the Frontier girls basketball team on Tuesday night.
The senior put up 16 points in the first half to give the hosts a double-digit lead at intermission, and she added nine more to finish with 25 points in the contest.
No. 4 Amesbury never let the No. 20 Redhawks get within striking distance, knocking Frontier out in the MIAA Division 4 Round of 16 with a 50-39 victory.
“She’s a really good player,” Frontier coach Dave Machon said of Hallinan. “It was a tough hole to come back from. They were very disciplined defensively. They’re well coached and they seem tight like they’ve been playing together for a long time. They knew where everyone would be on the floor and when we shut down [Hallinan] in the second half, she went somewhere else and they made baskets.”
The Redhawks (17-5) made things interesting in the fourth quarter. Trailing 40-23 heading into the frame, Kaitlyn Mackin and Hailey Hutkoski scored back-to-back buckets following a Hallinan hoop to cut the lead to 42-27.
Sami Kimball knocked down a free throw for Amesbury (18-4), but Kylie Laford scored twice and Mackin added a basket to cut the lead to 10, 43-33, at the midway point of the quarter.
That was as close as Frontier got however, as Gabriella Redford responded with a 3-pointer before both teams traded baskets the rest of the way.
“We had a nice offensive push there late,” Machon said. “It was just a little too late. I’m proud of the girls for the run though, they got moving there.”
Hallinan had it going early for Amesbury. The senior scored the opening four points of the game, Olivia DeLong scored down low before Hallinan tallied two more at the charity stripe to give the hosts an 8-0 lead.
Mackin put Frontier on the scoreboard with 3:20 to play in the frame but Hallinan and DeLong scored back-to-back baskets for Amesbury. Laford closed out the quarter with a 3 for the Redhawks to cut the deficit to 12-4 after eight minutes.
Both teams spent time at the free throw line to open the second quarter before a Hallinan basket put Amesbury ahead, 17-5. Laford made her second 3 of the game but the hosts went on a 6-0 run behind baskets by Hallinan, Kimball and DeLong to take a 23-8 lead.
Hallinan added one more basket in the quarter to give her 16 points at the half while Hutkowski and Laford scored to close out the quarter for Frontier, with Amesbury holding a 25-12 lead at the break.
DeLong opened the second half with three straight baskets to put the home team up, 31-12. Delaney Fifield scored in the paint and Mackin knocked down a free throw to halt the run and minutes later, Fifield scored twice and Mackin got to the rim for two to cut the lead to 33-21 with three minutes to go in the quarter.
Hallinan — who was held in check to start the second half — scored five points to close out the frame to put Amesbury ahead 40-23 going into the final eight minutes of action.
Laford led the Redhawks with 14 points, with Mackin scoring 13 points and Fifield adding six points in the loss.
Amesbury was able to use its size to its advantage on Tuesday, something Frontier hopes to be able to do in the future.
“We have some young size on our team and we’re looking for them to develop these next few years,” Machon said. “We’ll be playing games like they played tonight using their size to their advantage. In the end we played too much of their game and not enough of our own.”
Making it to the Round of 16 was a big accomplishment for the Redhawks, and Machon said he hopes state tournament runs becomes the new norm in South Deerfield.
“I’m so proud of the girls,” Machon said. “We were already against the odds here as a No. 20 seed going against the No. 4 seed. Anything we’ve done to this point was a huge success and anything beyond that would’ve been even better. I’m really proud of their effort. I’m sad to see our seniors go but I’m already looking forward to next year.”
Amesbury will host No. 12 Hamilton-Wenham in the Div. 4 quarterfinal round.