Frontier Downs Wahconah
DALTON, Mass. – Frontier junior Addie Harrington recorded a double-double and etched her name in the school’s record books with her 1,000th career point Wednesday as the Red Hawks handed Wahconah a 58-39 loss.
Harrington scored 23 points and pulled down 12 rebounds for Frontier (6-1).
She was sitting on 999 points for her career when she dropped in a 3-pointer from the right wing with 6 minutes, 45 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
In addition to giving her a spot in the 1,000-point club, the triple gave her team a 44-30 lead, its biggest to that point in the game.
Frontier pushed that margin to 23 points with 1:15 left in the fourth before Wahconah scored the last four points, all at the foul line.
After a back-and-forth first half that saw neither team lead by more than four points, the Red Hawks stormed out the locker room with a 7-0 run to take a 33-24 lead when Harrington got an uncontested shot in the post off an out-of-bounds play.
Wahconah (4-2) never got closer than six points the rest of the way.
Coach Liz Kay said Frontier wore her team down in the second half.
“I think the physicality really bothered us,” Kay said.
“Their ability to throw 30-foot passes with multiple kids certainly makes it more difficult when you’re trying to trap. It’s one thing to cut off a reverse pass, it’s another to cut off a 30-foot pass. So we’ll make some adjustments for the second time and the third time and whenever else we see them.”
Wahconah and Frontier are league rivals this winter in the Suburban League. They will play again in South Deerfield on Jan. 29. After not playing in the regular season last year, Frontier ousted Wahconah in the quarter-finals of the Western Massachusetts Class B tournament; both teams also are in Division 4 for the state tournament down the road.
Both looked like tourney contenders on defense in the first quarter, which Wahconah survived with an 11-9 lead after Frontier’s Skylar Steele (11 points) scored in transition in the final minute to cut into a four-point margin.
Wahconah led by as many as four in the second quarter after Anna Doyle (team-high 13 points) set up Gracey Farley for a 3-pointer from the left wing to make it 18-14.
But Frontier scored the next seven points, capped by a Whitney Campbell 3-pointer to take a 21-18 lead that the visitors never relinquished.
Brooke Harrington (six points, five rebounds) drove the left wing for a basket just before half-time to get Wahconah within two at 26-24.
That turned out to be the high-water mark for Wahconah as the Red Hawks took control of the game in the final 16 minutes of play.
Wahconah gets a chance to put Wednesday’s loss in the rear view on Friday when it welcomes league and county rival Hoosac Valley to Ed Ladley Gymnasium.
“It’s January,” Kay said. “You’ve got to play games. We haven’t played since [Dec.] 29th. I think practice is great – probably more for coaches right now than it is for players. So I think they’ll be ready to get back out and play.”
Photos from this game to come.