WALPOLE — Tessa Kawall winked as she blew a kiss to the Walpole student section after hitting a free throw.

They couldn’t rattle the Amherst Regional senior. Top-seeded Walpole couldn’t stop her from attacking the rim. 

She rattled in the second free throw to push the No. 16 Hurricanes’ lead out a little further.

“A lot of times with student sections you’re not supposed to feed the attention,” Kawall said. “I just didn’t know what to do or how to respond. I thought exemplifying my confidence would help me feel it myself.”

Kawall had every right to be confident. She scored 17 points and kept Amherst neck and neck with one of the best teams in the state when she was on the floor. Walpole controlled the minutes when she sat with foul trouble and won, 59-42, in the MIAA Division 2 Round of 16.

“She’s the best player on the floor. And when she had the opportunity to play, she was pretty dominant,” Amherst coach Ralph Loos said. “It’s unfortunate we didn’t get to play our best five against their best five a lot. I think those numbers were in our favor.”

The Timberwolves (21-2) reached their second consecutive Division 2 quarterfinal and will face No. 8 Pentucket.

Amherst held a 27-25 lead at halftime after Sarah Hastie sank two free throws in the final 30 seconds of the first half. Kawall picked up her third foul just seconds before.

“It’s difficult when Tess is put in jeopardy very early on not a lot of contact,” Loos said. “That made it a little difficult for us sometimes. We didn’t execute well enough, but certainly the foul situation changed our rotations from what they normally are.”

Loos kept Kawall on the bench to start the third quarter.

Walpole’s Catie Hurley tied the game at 27 with a third effort offensive rebound layup 90 seconds into the third quarter. She then put the Timberwolves ahead 30-28 in the paint with 6:03 to go.

The referees whistled Kawall for foul No. 4 as she tried to block a shot from behind shortly after. Walpole ripped off an 8-1 run off back-to-back 3s from Chloe Bidoh to take the lead for good.

“Our communication was definitely lacking. When we were playing defense, we kind of let it get to our heads. We knew they were a team that went on runs. We’re a team that likes to go on runs,” Kawlal said. “Whose runs are better? Whose runs are longer? We let it get to us when they went on a run and we weren’t immediately coming back.”

Amherst shaved the deficit back to four at the start of the fourth quarter. Sophie Higham rattled in a 3 just 32 seconds in then converted a layup through contact with 6:36 left that made it 40-36. She missed the free throw, and Bidoh responded with a 3 and a cut to the basket for a layup that pushed the advantage to 47-36, Walpole’s biggest and the first time the Timberwolves were up double digits.

Walpole led by as many as 13 (52-39) with three minutes left.

Loos pulled his five seniors off the floor with 43.5 seconds left to embrace them and salute their efforts rebuilding the program.

“To think Amherst is where Amherst is from four years ago is pretty amazing,” he said. “I could not be more proud. They played with full effort. They played with full intensity. I probably should have called timeout a little earlier. It’s a double-edged sword because I just have so much faith that they’re gonna figure it out.”

Amherst was 9-11 the year before they arrived but have won at least 15 games every year of their careers. The Hurricanes reached a Western Massachusetts final this season and won a game in the state tournament.

“Going into the locker room with the seniors crying was really sad, but we all know we’re here for each other forever,” Kawall said. “It’s really thanks to Ralph 100 percent for all his devotion. He’s energetic, he’s early. It’s building over time. We knew we had the potential all along. It just took devotion and effort.” 

Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.]]>