The Frontier Regional boys basketball team defeated Greenfield 70-48 at Goodnow Gymnasium on Thursday night. It was a wire-to-wire win for the Redhawks in Hampshire North competition.
Frontier (8-1, 4-0 Hampshire North) worked the ball inside to Alex Ellis early and often against the Green Wave (4-3, 3-1). Ellis finished with 17 points with nine points coming in the second quarter.
“Every game our focus is to play inside out,” Ellis said. “We get the ball inside and force the issue then we get it out to our shooters. We have a lot of guys on this squad that can shoot. Like Rowan (Modestow). We have a lot of bigs inside that can score. That’s our bread and butter.”
Modestow did some work inside on the glass as well but scored nine points on three 3-pointers. Max Millette led Frontier with 20 points.
“We are getting better with our bigs,” Frontier coach Josh Morse said. “They are owning the rebounding edge every game. Even in the one loss we outrebounded Wahconah. We are winning the rebounding differential. We are getting them better looks. They are passing better out of trapping defense. I think they are getting better every game.”
The Frontier defense held Greenfield leading scorer to nine points. Thomas played sparingly in the second half. There was no specific game plan for Thomas.
“For us it’s not about one player it’s about us,” Morse said. “How do you play against that? We are not playing Jordan rules here. We are playing team defense. Our defense is we are going to shut down whoever’s got the ball.”
Conner Bergeron led Greenfield with 15 points. Davian Bala added 11 points with two 3-pointers. Greenfield got down early against the Redhawks and could never recover.
“We play a good team, and they jump on us,” Greenfield coach Angelo Thomas said. “They play aggressive and we face a little adversity, and I did not like what I saw tonight. Impulsivity is a character flaw right now. We really got to work on it. Starting from one all the way down.”
Thomas scored nine points, all in the second quarter. A 3-pointer by Bala cut the Frontier lead down to 50-35 going into the fourth quarter.
The Redhawks then went on an 8-0 run. Millette started the run with a midrange jumper followed by a smooth and controlled hook shot by Dean Gray. From there, Garrett Dredge got loose in the open court for consecutive finishes at the rim to make the score 58-35.
Greenfield plays again on Jan. 13 at Smith Academy in Hatfield. Frontier travels to Hadley to face Hopkins Academy on the same night.