WEST SPRINGFIELD - The Northampton girls basketball team's rebuilding year will end without a trip to the postseason.

The Blue Devils suffered their fourth straight loss Friday night, 63-53 to West Springfield for their 11th defeat of the season and were eliminated from contention for the Western Massachusetts Division 1 Tournament for the first time in more than a decade.

"I told them in (the locker room after the game), they have to decide how good they want to be. The kids in the past that have been great have worked at it," said Northampton coach Perry Messer, whose program graduated six college-level players since winning the state championship in 2008. "We've got some kids coming up who are willing to work hard. We're going to get this thing turned around. We're not going to quit on it."

The Blue Devils (6-11, 1-8 Valley Wheel) were moved into a "power league" during realignment this off-season. The Division 1 conferences were changed from three leagues to two and the perennial powers were grouped together in the Valley Wheel.

"We're fine with being in the top league, but they should have kept it at three leagues," said Messer, whose team is 5-3 in non-league games this season.

"Instead, you lose two (automatic qualifiers to the tournament)," he added. "We're in the top league, so we'll keep working until we're at the top of the league, but all the (athletic directors) can argue with me about that one and I'm not going to change my mind. I think it's going to have a negative effect on the Division 1 tournament this year."

Friday's game was a must-win for Northampton and a virtual must-win for the Terriers (7-9, 4-5), who have won three straight and must go 3-1 down the stretch in their final four games to clinch a postseason berth of their own.

"They just wanted it more," said Blue Devils junior center Lauren Weston, whose team had beaten West Springfield by one in Northampton on Dec. 14. "We had it in us to beat them, but they came out and were better than us today."

Weston was a bright spot Friday night and showed why the Blue Devils remain optimistic about the near future.

She finished with a career-high 22 points to go with 16 rebounds.

"I'm giving her a hard time and she had a 22-point night. But I'm looking at it and it could have been a 32-, 40-point night, really," Messer said. "She's doing the things she should do and how she should do them. She's tough. She's one of the toughest kids I've got and she knows she left a lot of opportunities out there on the floor."

Weston agreed with her coach's assessment.

"We have to work on our individual skills, especially getting stronger," she said. "I know I got stripped of the ball several times. We have a lot of work to do" to get ready for next year."

West Springfield jumped out to an 8-0 lead and pushed the advantage to double digits midway through the first quarter.

"The bottom line is that we aren't tough enough, we aren't strong enough and we don't play hard enough. Those are three major things," Messer said. "What we're learning to do is play it in four, five minute stretches, but we can't sustain it for long enough.

"We came out tonight flat, not ready to play, not ready to execute and got ourselves down (by 10)," he added. "That's basically where the game ended up."

The Blue Devils closed the gap behind three points each by Molly Ross (13 points) and Weston and trailed 16-13 after the first quarter.

West Springfield pushed the lead back into double digits in the second quarter en route to a 32-23 lead at halftime, as Hannah Cawley scored all seven of her points in the frame.

"Each time we got close, they would make two quick shots," Weston said. "They never let us back in all the way."

Northampton answered again in the third, as Susan Bell knocked down a 3-pointer and Ross followed with six straight points to keep the deficit within five, but the Blue Devils never got closer.

West Springfield sophomore standout Dana Theobald, who averages 22 points per game, was held to just four field goals on the night, but made 14 free throws, including 10 in the fourth quarter to ice the game. She finished with 23 points.

Messer said the effort in the last three games of the regular season will tell him a lot about his returning players.

"It's got to mean as much to them as it does the coaching staff," Messer said. "That's what we're going to find out. We're going find the players that want to be at Northampton and do that."

Jim Pignatiello can be reached at jpignatiello@gazettenet.com. Get high school updates delivered directly to you Facebook newsfeed at www.facebook.com/gazette.hs.