H.S. Roundup: Gateway’s strong defense leads to victory over PVCICS

AMHERST — The Gateway Regional girls basketball team opened its season with a hard-fought, 22-17 victory over PVCICS on Tuesday night. With offense hard to come by for both sides, the Gators used sturdy defense to make the difference.

Defensively, Gateway mainly found success in its 2-3 zone, clogging up lanes to the inside and forcing the Dragons into contested shots from long range. The Gators mixed in an aggressive 1-3-1 press as well, generating turnovers on a regular basis.

“I think we did great [defensively],” Gateway head coach Kylie Crawford said. “If we keep that up and keep up the intensity, our press will be really good, and we can keep close scoring games.”

In the first half, the Gators found frequent easy buckets in the paint, using quick ball movement to get the PVCICS zone defense out of place. Addison Green led the team in scoring on Tuesday with eight points, finding the gaps in the defense and making the most of her opportunities.

Grace Renauld had seven points of her own, using her aggressiveness on the glass to get a few easy putbacks. As the second half played out, Gateway struggled to get the same looks inside, with the Dragons emphasizing the middle on defense.

“We struggled to adjust to the defense,” Crawford said. “Our play was still working; there was different options, it wasn’t always the first option that was open, and we struggled to adjust to that.”

Leading the game in points for PVCICS was Isabella Cestero, tallying 12 on the night, making three 3-pointers in the process. Sophia Cestero was the only other Dragon to find the bottom of the basket, with five points of her own.

Despite facing a deficit, PVCICS fought to make a comeback, just struggling to hit shots late in the contest. With just two points in the fourth quarter, the Dragons offense couldn’t get going when it needed to most.

“[We] played really hard, and then almost made a comeback after being seven points behind,” PVCICS head coach Johnny Yu said. “Just didn’t make the shots at the end.”

The win gets Gateway out to a 1-0 record to begin the season, with its next game on the road against Sci-Tech on Friday, December 19, at 6 p.m.

PVCICS will look to get its first win of the season this Friday as well, when it travels to play Commerce at 6 p.m.

“We definitely could have scored more points,” Crawford said. “We missed a lot of layups and the easy things, we missed our foul shots. We’re just really working on those things. We have to keep up the pressure and the intensity and the teamwork. We played really well as a team.”

Smith Voc 49, Pathfinder 30 — The Vikings started off their season on the right foot with a comfortable victory over the Pioneers.

Sofia Zina secured a team-high 14 points for Smith Voc, while Julianis Suarez and Mallory Radwich each bucketed eight points.

The Vikings were up, 21-13, at halftime, then poured in 20 points during the third quarter to pull away from Pathfinder and take the home win.

Megan Clark contributed 14 points for the Pioneers.

Easthampton 53, Taconic 31 — The Eagles claimed their season opener against the Thunder thanks to a prolific night from Samone Young.

Young scored 22 points to pace Easthampton, including 10 during the first quarter alone. Sophia Belfakih (eight points) and Nola Roos (seven points) also chipped in on offense for the Eagles.

Frontier 51, Hoosac Valley 42 — The Redhawks’ duo of Addie Harrington and Skyler Steele combined for nearly 30 points in their second straight win.

Harrington had 17 points while Steele slotted 11 points for Frontier, which improved to 2-1.

Belchertown 60, Chicopee Comp 33 — Three Orioles surpassed double-digit point totals in their first win of the year.

Aubrey Klingensmith (16 points), Morghan Litz (15 points) and Gabby Slovack (10 points) boosted the Belchertown offense.

The Orioles flew out to a 21-10 lead after the first quarter and never looked back, moving to 1-1 on the season.

Late Monday Results

Boys basketball

South Hadley 62, West Springfield 44 — Tim Loughrey’s 29 points powered the Tigers to win No. 1 on the season.

Loughrey made 13 shots altogether, plus three free throws, to bump South Hadley back to 1-1 overall.

Noah Hambley (15 points) and Isiah James (10 points) also played well for the Tigers.