Amherst girls basketball team turned doubters into believers
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Many good teams use the 'nobody believed in us' mantra to fire themselves up.
Most of the time, it's just a ploy.
But for the 2010-11 Amherst Regional girls basketball team, it was legitimate.
Not much was expected from the Hurricanes outside of those within the program. They had lost four starters from the prior season, which ended in the Western Massachusetts Division 1 Tournament championship game and there was nothing to indicate that there was enough talent returning for Amherst to make another run at a title.
But the Hurricanes and coach Christal Murphy knew what the had - an athletic, physical team that could play outstanding team defense and score from all five positions.
Returning starter Brianna Leonard, a scrappy defender the year before, became the team's top scoring threat and the emergence of senior Nancy Mangels and juniors Forbasaw Nkamebo, Kristen Ferola and Victoria Stewart as true stars quickly put Amherst back in the spotlight during the regular season.
And while there may have been other teams with a better player or two, none of them played as well together as the Hurricanes.
The parts were quite good, but the sum was even better. It combined Leonard's tenacity and versatility with Nkamebo's power inside, Mangels' soft shooting touch and leadership, Ferola's shutdown defense and Stewart's ball-handling ability to win 17 straight regular season games.
But when the team lost its regular season finale to Chicopee Comp, the doubters returned and everyone wanted to pick someone else to win WMass.
Instead, the Hurricanes defeated Northampton, Holyoke and Longmeadow to win their first title since 1993 and then defeated Algonquin in overtime in the state semifinals to reach the state championship.
The run ended their with a loss to defending champion Andover, but the point was made.
By the end of the season, everyone believed in those Hurricanes.
