South Hadley Catches Pittsfield in Closing Minute
HOLYOKE, Mass. – The South Hadley girls basketball team Wednesday took its first lead of the night with less than a minute to go and held on for a 58-57 win over Pittsfield in the title game of the Western Massachusetts Class B Tournament.
Taylor Bullough scored in the final minute to give her team a 57-56 advantage, and the Tigers held Pittsfield scoreless in its final possession to avenge its five-point loss to PHS in last year’s regional final.
Ironically, the winning basket came in a scoring opportunity created by South Hadley’s rare and successful use of its full-court press – the same tool Pittsfield uses defensively every night and used on Wednesday to build a double-digit lead in the first quarter.
The Generals led throughout the game and were up by 13 with two minutes left in the third quarter before South Hadley mounted a 12-4 to make it a one-point game midway through the fourth.
Pittsfield (16-5) had chances to put the game out of reach down the stretch. But the No. 1 seed in the tournament went 6-for-18 at the free throw line in the fourth quarter and 12-for-26 from the stripe in the game.
“Layups and foul shots – no other way to put it,” Pittsfield coach Kristy Conyers said. “We beat ourselves. Again, another game where if we made layups and foul shots, the score would have been much different.”
In the first half, Pittsfield made a lot of shots.
Caprese Conyers (20 points, five assists) got off to a hot start, scoring 10 points in the first quarter.
Her steal and layup at the end of the quarter gave the Generals a 23-10 lead. She then started the second quarter with a steal and an assist to Kyana Summers (12 points, six assists) and a bucket in transition to give Pittsfield its biggest lead of the game at 27-10.
The Tigers recovered with a 13-2 run of their own to draw within six on a putback by Cara Dean (15 points, 10 rebounds).
Again, the Generals pulled ahead.
A bucket by Madison Stetz in the post jump-started a 9-1 surge to the end of the half that ended with a triple from Asia Smith-Moody that sent Pittsfield to the locker room up, 38-24.
Conyers’ steal and layup in the third gave Pittsfield a 47-34 lead, and Harolyn Castillo (12 points, 11 rebounds) converted an offensive rebound to give the Generals their last double-digit lead at 49-38 with 1 minute, 27 seconds left in the third.
South Hadley’s Kate Phillips (12 points, six rebounds) scored in transition at the end of the quarter to get her team within seven, and Pittsfield never led by more than four points in the fourth quarter.
Smith-Moody hit a free throw with one minute on the clock to give Pittsfield a 56-53 lead, but Phillips, who scored 10 in the second half, finished in the post to get her team within one with 45 seconds left.
The Tigers’ press forced a turnover on Pittsfield’s ensuing possession, setting the stage for Bullough’s game-winning shot.
Pittsfield got to the line on its next possession but came up empty, and South Hadley’s Dean was fouled with 18.3 seconds on the clock. She hit one free throw to give the Tigers a 58-56 lead.
The next time down, Pittsfield got to the line and sank the second with 12.1 ticks remaining. Pittsfield’s press got a turnover on the Tigers’ inbounds play with 10.8 seconds remaining.
On what turned out to be the final possession, Pittsfield worked the ball around to Castillo, who found Summers at the top of the key. Summers’ shot was off the mark, and Conyers got the rebound but was unable to get off a shot before time expired.
Pittsfield, which started the day as the No. 2 team in the state in Division 3, learns Saturday who it will face in the opening round of the D3 State Tournament next week.