H.S. Roundup: Offense stalls for Amherst girls basketball in first loss of season

AMHERST — The Amherst girls basketball team lost its first game of the season after a four-game winning streak to start the season, falling 31-16 to Ware on Tuesday night.

Offense was hard to come by for the Hurricanes, especially early on. The team struggled to exploit the Indians’ collapsing defense that created a large number of turnovers throughout the night.

With zero points in the first quarter, Amherst made some adjustments to change its pace of play, finding some success in the second and third quarters offensively.

“We started to just slow it down in the second half,” Hurricanes head coach Billy Galipeau said. “Second half, we were more aggressive, driving to the rim, and we did a lot better of a job kicking out to our open players, creating some advantages that way.”

Amherst played Tuesday’s game without one of its captains, with Aliya Morales-Fernandez not in the lineup.

The junior’s presence was missed on both sides of the floor against Ware, but some of the younger Hurricanes were there to pick up the slack as best they could.

Freshman Ruth Robison was one of the young benefactors, finishing the night with a team-high eight points, while facilitating the offense and helping find open teammates

“[Robison] really found her stride, especially in the second half,” Galipeau said. “Eventually, she started putting her head down, finding open driving lanes, and she converted on a lot of those drives today, [and] had good touch around the rim.”

Iman Skota and Jordan Dunbar-Robinson each had three points for Amherst on Tuesday, while Audi Vu had the final two, which were the team’s only points of the fourth quarter.

Defensively, the Hurricanes played a solid game early in the night, making the Indians’ ball-handlers uncomfortable consistently. Ware eventually did well to maintain possession and create easy baskets as the game went on, using Amherst’s aggression against itself.

“Defense is really our backbone,” Galipeau said. “What I think we struggled on [Tuesday] is we didn’t create as many turnovers as we usually do. That’s sort of been our bread and butter, where we really press up on teams. They did a good job of setting a lot of screens that we didn’t communicate on. That’s going to be the main focus defensively heading into the next practice.”

The Hurricanes will look to get back on track after their first loss of the season, getting a week-long break before their next game.

Amherst (4-1) takes on Sci-Tech at home on Tuesday, December 30, at 6 p.m. on its home court.

“This is definitely a wake-up call for us,” Galipeau said. “Great start to the season, obviously. The players are upset about this one, and I think that shows that they really do care. We’re not taking anything for granted. We know that we’re gonna have to work hard to finish out the rest of the season.”

Northampton 59, South Hadley 57 — The Blue Devils eked out a road win against the Tigers on Tuesday.

Emme Calkins dropped 24 points for Northampton as the game’s top scorer, while Anna Oravec and Liv Joensen each played well with 11 points for the victors.

The fourth quarter proved to be the Blue Devils’ most prolific of the clash as the visitors managed 21 points in the final frame to erase a 40-38 deficit after the third.

Kate Phillips and Olivia Athas each attained 15 points for South Hadley (1-2), with Cara Dean close behind with 13 points.

Northampton improved to 4-1 after its third straight win.

Late Monday Results

Girls basketball

East Longmeadow 47, Belchertown 39 — The Orioles couldn’t overcame a slow start in their away defeat.

Belchertown (2-2) fell behind 20-15 at halftime, then 37-19 at the end of the third quarter, before a furious comeback bid that included a 19-point fourth quarter ultimately came up short.

Aubrey Klingensmith and Morghan Litz scored 11 points as the Orioles’ top scorers, with Kina Roy also reaching double digits with 10 points in the loss.

Boys basketball

Palmer 49, Granby 46 — The Rams’ winless streak moved to four consecutive after its close loss to the Panthers.

Zavien Fernandez was fabulous for Granby (0-4), finishing with 21 points with five 3-pointers made in the process. Ray Colon’s 10 points also supported the Rams’ offense in this one.

Easthampton 65, Southwick 51 — Four Eagles eclipsed double figures in their second straight win.

Raemon Mathurin (18 points), Jay Brown (15 points), Patrick Larson and Chase Canon-Smith (11 points each) put back the bulk of the points for Easthampton, which improved to 3-2.