AMHERST – The Amherst girls basketball team put on a show for a packed home crowd on Senior Night.

The Hurricanes ran away with a 74-27 victory over South Hadley in Suburban League action. 

It was a special night for the senior class. Five seniors – Audrey Bowen, Tessa Kawall, Nany Mares, Sophie Higham and Sara Hastie – started the game together, and got on the floor again as a group in the final quarter for a brief minute before head coach Ralph Loos called a timeout so they could walk off together and enjoy a moment with the coaching staff and each other. 

“I think we've been waiting for this night for a really long time, when you’re on varsity,” Bowen said. “I think it's been building up to this moment. So it was really special tonight.”

The stars for the home team were seniors Kawall and Bowen, who put up an incredible 22 and 21 points, respectively, to combine for more than half of Amherst’s total.

South Hadley’s leading scorer was Maddie Soderbaum, who finished with six points. 

Amherst (10-3, 7-1) dominated the game from the get go, racing out to a 12-2 lead. Kawall’s second steal and layup combo forced Tigers head coach Paul Dubuc to call a timeout, but it didn’t do much to slow the Hurricanes’ roll. 

Amherst built a lead as big as 17-2 in the opening quarter, and baskets from the South Hadley’s Erin Bullough and Kacie Levreault trimmed the deficit to 17-6 after eight minutes of play. 

South Hadley (6-2, 4-2) looked like it might claw back into the game in the second period. Despite Amherst’s defense swarming them every time they stepped foot in the offensive zone, the Tigers outscored the Hurricanes 10-5 in the first four minutes of the second period, pulling to within six points and building a little momentum.

The home team quashed any life the Tigers had in the final four minutes before intermission. Amherst went on a 17-1 run to close out the first half, highlighted by a basket in the final seconds from Kawall. 

“We’re going to take a few things away from today. It'll be OK. We're in a marathon, we're not in a sprint,” Dubuc said. “We’ll grow from this. This is where it shows our youth.” 

The Hurricanes opened the third period on a 14-0 run and put things out of reach for the rest of the game. By the end of the third frame, Amherst led 61-21, and from there it was smooth sailing for the home team.

]]>