WESTFIELD — It wasn’t a secret that the No. 2 Northampton girls basketball team would have its hands full against top-seeded Springfield Central in Saturday’s PVIAC Class A final. The Blue Devils had lost 10 straight to the Golden Eagles coming in, including a pair of decisive defeats already this winter.

All Northampton head coach Perry Messer wanted was his girls to put up a fight against the No. 4-ranked team in the state in Division 1. And put up a fight they did.

The Blue Devils trailed 14-6 at the end of the first quarter and 25-12 at halftime, with Makayla Fydenkevez knocking down a pair of huge 3s to keep Northampton in the game. The Blue Devils played well enough on the defensive end throughout to win the game. But similar to these two teams’ last handful of matchups, Central ultimately wore Northampton down over four quarters of action – the Golden Eagles’ full-court press causing a flurry of ‘Hamp turnovers.

For the second straight season the Blue Devils fell short of a Class A crown at the hands of Central, falling 52-29 at Westfield High School.

“[I didn’t think we played] very good,” Messer said. “I thought we didn’t handle their pressure. You have to be able to execute and get the ball up to your half court set. You can’t allow the body bumps, the hand grabs and the other stuff to get to you. We lost our composure a few times on the court, and when you do that you make mistakes.”

Losing a game in which the head coach feels they were the better team is always a tough pill to swallow. Messer has faced many instances like that over his storied coaching career. However on Saturday Messer could admit that Northampton simply got beat by a better team.

For 32 minutes the Blue Devils gave everything they had. Knowing that, Messer and Northampton can live with the result at the end of the day.

“I always love the way my kids compete, it’s not that they don’t compete,” Messer said. “They always show up and give 100 percent effort. But how many shots did we take today that were just crap shots. Don’t chuck up a bunch of crap. Like I told my sophomores, this is the sixth time they’ve faced Central. It’s not like it’s the first time they’re handling this kind of pressure. I give my kids credit, we’ve worked hard enough to face them in the finals the last two years. But at some point you have to be mentally tough enough to hang with them.”

Central used its patented press right out of the gate to hound the Blue Devils. Halfway through the opening frame, Northampton hadn’t scored. But its effort on the other end only surrendered four points, and Fydenkevez splashed her first 3 to get the Blue Devils back within one.

As the first half progressed, Northampton used the Golden Eagles’ aggression to get to the free throw line on a number of occasions. Messer’s team shot eight free throws through two quarters, but it only converted two of them. Once again Northampton held Central to a respectable 11 points in the second, but it only put up six and missed three more shots from the line.

That trend continued in the second half. In total, the Blue Devils shot 7-for-19 from the stripe – which isn’t a recipe to knock off a No. 1 seed.

“The big thing in the first half, we got to the line but we couldn’t make free throws,” Messer said. “I don’t know what we shot in the first half on free throws, it might have been 2-for-10. When you work hard enough to get yourself there, you have to punish the other team by making them. If you aren’t mentally tough enough to knock those down, it’s going to be a long night. And it was.”

With under three minutes to go in the third quarter, Liv Joensen banked in a free throw while being fouled. She made the ensuing free throw and all of a sudden Northampton was only down a dozen (32-20). The Golden Eagles answered with a 9-2 run to close the frame, a Jada Watson banked 3-pointer sparking it.

Central was the beneficiary of several fortunate bounces as it banked in a few 3s when Northampton clawed back within striking distance. At the end of the day, the Blue Devils simply didn’t make enough plays to have a real shot at taking down the Golden Eagles.

“Tip your cap to them, they played really well and we just didn’t play as well as we needed to,” Messer said. “We have to be better.”

Fydenkevez led Northampton with eight points, Emme Calkins scored six, Bri Heafey and Joensen added five apiece and Anna Oravec chipped in four points for the Blue Devils. Unlike most of Messer’s career, the season isn’t over after losing in the Western Mass. tournament.

Northampton (16-5) is the No. 9 seed in the MIAA Division 2 state tourney, and it will host a Round of 32 game against the winner of No. 24 Reading Memorial and No. 41 Marblehead on a date and time to be determined.

After losing to Central in last year’s Class A title game, the Blue Devils made it to the D2 Final Four.

“We’re just going to keep competing,” Messer said. “That’s all we can do.”