High school basketball tips off in Hampshire County on Thursday night with four girls games signaling the start of the winter sports season.
PVCICS and Hampshire each hit the road for their season openers while South Hadley and Frontier welcome non-league opponents to their home floors. After the girls teams get things started on Thursday, a massive slate of games is scheduled for Friday night, as 11 contests take place – including the first glimpse of boys action.
As is the case each year, each team has dealt with roster turnover and parted ways with very talented graduating seniors from a season ago. The majority of squads across the area will look vastly different with new faces taking over as leading scorers and captains.
With that said, here are five storylines to pay attention to as the 2023-2024 high school basketball season unfolds.
The Tigers were terrific during the initial third of last season. South Hadley won its first seven consecutive games to start things off before going 7-8 over its final 15 contests.
Their Division 4 tournament run started in the Round of 32, when the Tigers made enough plays down the stretch against Lunenburg to come away with a 66-56 win. In the Round of 16, South Hadley matched up with a Springfield International Charter team that eliminated them from the Class B Western Mass. tournament two weeks prior. The Tigers battled until the very end, but their 14-8 season ended with a four-point loss to the Bulldogs.
Colin Quinn, the Gazette’s Player of the Year for 2022-23, Chase Mathers, and Edward Wykowski led South Hadley in scoring during that season and tournament run. Jack Loughrey was the only other player to score at least 100 points, and the junior is going to be looked at to lead the Tigers offense.
In order to match similar results from last season, South Hadley will have to score by committee, but also rely heavily on its scrappy defense to keep them in games.
After winning 11 in a row to begin the year, and six of seven after its first loss, Easthampton sat at 17-2 going into postseason play. The Eagles fell to Wahconah twice in both tournaments. Easthampton lost in the Class B Western Mass. semifinals and the Division 4 Round of 16, but had an incredible season overall.
Lauren Morse reached 1,000 points last year, and Maria Belfakih was second on the team in points. Both have moved on, which leaves the Eagles with slack to pick up. Sophia Faginski and Kayley Downie lead the list of returning talent. A lot of Easthampton’s younger players actually played a ton last year, which bodes well for them in 2023-2024 because they won’t be completely new to the varsity scene.
Easthampton may not score at the pace it did, but the Eagles have an opportunity to be very competitive in league play again, no question.
New-look Golden Hawks eager for opportunity
There wasn’t a team in Hampshire County that started the season as hot as the Hopkins boys did.
The Golden Hawks won 12 straight to start the season, finished with 18 wins, and fell just a few possessions short of a Class D Western Mass. championship against Pioneer. Hopkins earned two home games in the Division 5 state tournament, and ultimately fell 59-55 to Roxbury Prep in the Round of 16.
A lot of Hopkins’ success can be credited to the stellar point-guard play of freshman Teddy Cyr. Cyr led the team with 334 points on the year and saved his best performances for the most important games (averaging 24 points per game over final four games of season). He decided to transfer to Deerfield Academy to accelerate his academic and athletic goals, meaning he’ll no longer be suiting up for Hopkins this winter.
The Hawks also lost Patrick Fitzgibbons and Cody West, two key pieces to last year’s team. Head coach Jim Hart still has James Fitzgibbons, Chase Earle, and Alex West among others to share the load after those big departures.
It’ll be interesting to see how Hopkins does without the constant scoring threat of Cyr.
Blue Devils head coach Rey Harp has dealt with plenty of challenges during his long tenure with the Blue Devils, but what he’s faced with this season might be the toughest task.
Northampton graduated a whopping nine seniors from last year, almost enough players for two separate lineups. Kelvin Perez, Ben Sledzieski and Caleb Steineger were terrific athletes across several sports, and those three are the biggest losses given they were three of the four top leading scorers a year ago.
The other scoring leader was senior Silas Coles, who dropped 260 points (second on team) last year. Coles’ best game came against Putnam, where he poured in 22 points in a three-point loss. He scored in double figures in 11 of Northampton’s final 12 games of the year, clearly finding his groove as the year went on.
Given the Blue Devils play in a very competitive league with Central, Putnam, and Sci-Tech, they’ll have their hands full right away.
New coach Erin Klaes inherits a talented roster in Amherst, but one that is dealing with a bunch departures from a year ago, including the team’s three leading scorers. Tessa Kawall (a 1,000-point scorer), Audrey Bowen and Sara Hastie are no longer with the ‘Canes.
This leaves some holes to fill. Junior Niyama Adadenoh is the leading returning scorer, and is one of eight returners to score points last year. Shannon Klaes and Zola Higham each scored over 50 points apiece as well, so there is potential for Amherst to have another successful campaign and perhaps make the postseason yet again.
From Jan. 12 to Feb. 22, the ‘Canes won 12 straight games last season. They found their groove as the year went along. Expect the same from this group as they get comfortable with one another and figure out where the scoring is going to come from after losing six seniors.
