WORCESTER — South Hadley girls basketball head coach Paul Dubuc walked into the locker room with his No. 3 Tigers trailing 23-19 to Tyngsborough at halftime of the MIAA Division 4 state semifinals.

“If on the Monday after Thanksgiving,” Dubuc started, “if someone told you you could go to a state final if you spot this team four points, would you take your chances?”

The Tigers did just that, and more.

After trailing most of the first half, South Hadley started the third quarter with a 13-2 run and never looked back, scoring a 53-43 win for its 19th consecutive victory Tuesday at Worcester State University.

In the decisive third quarter, South Hadley scored 20 points – as many as it allowed in the entire second half.

The Tigers haven’t lost a game since the calendar flipped to 2024, a run that also included the school’s first Western Mass. Class B crown on Feb. 24. They have one more game this weekend to get their streak to an even 20, against top-seeded and defending champion Cathedral, which knocked them out of the tournament last year in the Round of 16. 

But Tuesday didn’t get off to the best start for South Hadley. The Tigers’ bus hit a sign in the school parking lot and punctured a tire, meaning South Hadley only got 30 minutes to warm up on the court before the game instead of its desired hour.

Final. South Hadley wins 53-43. Incredible second half performance. pic.twitter.com/4o1K7hLsyP

— Connor Pignatello (@c_pignatello) March 12, 2024

Despite the delay, both teams played a competitive first half, with Tyngsborough senior captains Carly DiMento and Gianna Donato scoring all but four of its team’s points to take the 23-19 advantage.

“(Carly DiMento and Gianna Donato) are as good as anyone we see all year,” Dubuc said. “...We’re tough. He’s got those two girls. We’ve got eight, nine.”

In the second half, South Hadley played DiMento and Donato closer, and no other Tyngsborough player scored. 

While No. 2 Tyngsborough had only three scorers on the night, South Hadley had seven, all between three and 11 points – a staple of the program this season. Ava Asselin led the Tigers with 11 points, Caitlin Dean had 10 and Drew Alley scored nine. Freshmen Cara Dean and Kate Phillips followed with eight apiece, CC Gurek scored four and Maddie Soderbaum finished with three.

It was a mirror image of South Hadley’s season thus far. Coming into Tuesday, seven different players had scored at least 140 points and eight players were within 50 points of each other.

“If I don’t know who’s going to be the leading scorer then I don’t know how someone from the New Hampshire border is going to know,” said Dubuc of Tyngsborough.

DiMento (19) and Donato (20) got their points, but South Hadley’s pace and depth proved to be the difference down the stretch. The Tigers pushed the ball up the floor in transition every chance they got and constantly rotated their players to keep them fresh. Tyngsborough did not have that advantage.

“I think we’re a very well-conditioned team compared to a lot of teams,” Alley said. “We’re able to run at a fast pace through the whole game.”

After a first half where South Hadley got good looks but couldn’t convert, the Tigers started hitting shots after the break.

“We know where we like to shoot and we know when we like to shoot,” Cara Dean, who hit two crucial 3-pointers in the third quarter, said. “We went out, we looked for each other, we weren’t selfish and we got it to the people who were on fire.”

And once South Hadley got on a run, the only way to stop it was Tyngsborough timeouts. Tyngsborough got back within two points with about five minutes left in regulation, but South Hadley’s defense took over from then on. 

Kate Phillips made a steal in the backcourt and then got fouled on her third attempt at the rim. She made both free throws. Then, on the next play, Gurek stole the ball in the backcourt again and hit a layup. After several key defensive stops, Asselin hit a shot inside to make it 48-40 with just over a minute left. From then on, it was all free throws and the Tigers cruised to what ended up being a comfortable margin.

Two years in a row, South Hadley has lost to the eventual state champions. In 2022, it reached the semifinals, only to lose to Amesbury. Last year, Cathedral beat the Tigers by 24 points on its way to a state championship where it won every game by at least 17. In this year’s state tournament, Cathedral has won its four games by an average of 36 points, including a 68-37 win over No. 4 Millis in the semifinals.

The state final will be held at the Tsongas Center in Lowell, likely Saturday or Sunday. The official date and time has not been announced yet.