SOUTH HADLEY — With South Hadley’s Jack Loughrey sidelined tending to a lower leg injury in the fourth quarter, the Frontier boys basketball team clawed its way back into the game after trailing by 17 points entering the frame. The Redhawks went on a 12-3 run – Max Millette scoring 10 of those points – to make it 59-51 midway through.

Loughrey checked back in, Tigers head coach Chris Gerber called a timeout, and everything changed for South Hadley.

The Tigers came out of the huddle and went on an 8-1 spurt to seize all momentum back from the visiting sideline, and Loughrey scored a dozen of his 34 points in the fourth quarter to will South Hadley to a 73-62 win despite a whopping 39 points from Millette.

Loughrey and the Tigers made enough plays down the stretch, and South Hadley went 8-for-10 from the line as Frontier played the foul game – keeping the Hawks out of reach in the final minute.

“It always feels like [free-throw shooting is a bugaboo too, so it was nice to see them go in down the stretch,” Gerber said. “[Frontier] just kept coming, they really did cut the lead down. Those kids are tough. We lost Jack for a couple minutes in the fourth, and obviously that was a bit problematic. But to take care of business on the free-throw line is pretty cool.”

During the South Hadley timeout that halted Frontier’s run, Gerber hit his team with a math problem. With just under four minutes remaining, he told his guys that all they had to do was score six points the rest of the way so long as they took care of the ball and bled the shot clock down.

If they were to succeed at that, Frontier mathematically wouldn’t have enough possessions to come back and win. Well, right out of the timeout Loughrey turned a steal into a layup, and on the very next play, Julius Hebenth jumped the passing lane for a steal and easy two. All of a sudden South Hadley was right back in the driver’s seat.

“Honestly, I did some crazy math equation for them and told them all we needed was six more points,” Gerber said. “There wasn’t much time left in the game, so if we scored a few buckets, they wouldn’t have been able to come back... I just tried to calm them down. We’ve got tough kids and have been in a ton of battles. Sometimes you just have to let them take a deep breath and let them go play the next play.”

Frontier faced an eight-point halftime deficit, and when that gap ballooned to 17 following the third quarter. Millette scored all 11 of the Redhawks’ points in that frame, and he realized he’d have to do more of that in the fourth if the Redhawks wanted any chance at a win.

Millette went on to drop 18 of Frontier’s 23 fourth-quarter points, meaning he accounted for 29 of the team’s 34 total points in the second half alone. He did everything he could – rebounds and loose-ball hustle plays included – to give the Redhawks a chance down the stretch.

“Once we got down big, I knew that the team needed me to step up,” Millette said. “I’m a guy that will do whatever the team needs. I don’t care what it is. I’ve played with these guys for a while, and I recognized they needed me to score, so I flipped that switch.”

“He establishes our great culture,” Frontier head coach Josh Morse added of Millette. “If your best player isn’t your best teammate, then you’ve got a problem. And he’s our best teammate. He gives us the ability to compete and be in every game… We’re in every game, and we compete because of him. He has a killer mentality. He likes to win, and he’s super competitive… Tonight was his best game against one of the best teams we’ve faced.”

Frontier may not have been able to overcome the hole they dug themselves heading into the final eight minutes of Monday’s contest, but they did give themselves a chance – and the young Hawks battled in a hostile environment.

During the aforementioned 12-3 fourth-quarter run, Morse leaned on his youth, playing whoever he felt was giving their best effort out on the floor. Even eighth grader Landon Lavallee knocked down a 3 in the fourth quarter. The bench was into it the entire frame, something Morse hopes sticks moving forward.

“We’re going to go with the best five that gives us the best opportunity to win on any given night,” Morse said. “It doesn’t matter to me who it is. I thought we showed a collective team effort. Our bench came in and gave us electric moments, and the energy from guys on the bench was amazing. Nobody hung their heads if they weren’t playing. We can build on that.”

Alex Ellis and Rowan Modestow each tallied eight points for Frontier, Garrett Dredge tossed in four and Lavallee chipped in three to round out the Redhawks’ scoring on Monday.

Frontier (8-5) welcomes Greenfield to Goodnow Gymnasium on Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m.

Outisde of Loughrey’s 34 points, Noah Hambley was fantastic for South Hadley. Hambley scored 17 points and handled the ball well against Frontier’s full-court pressure. He’s become a steady option for the Tigers offense as the season has progressed. Isiah James chipped in 11 points and Hebenth added 10, making it four South Hadley players in double figures with one of its key starters, Tim Loughrey, out of the lineup on Monday.

Gerber commented on the Tigers’ true team effort, and also said watching Jack Loughrey night in and night out never gets old.

“You never get used to it, it’s pretty damn special,” Gerber said, referring to the season his senior is having. “The kid just battles. And he doesn’t get [his buckets] easy. He gets a bunch of ones, he gets a bunch of twos and he gets a bunch of threes. He defends, he rebounds, he gets them in transition and he hits the clinchers. He’s a special, special player.”

South Hadley improves to 11-3 and has won seven of its last eight with the win. The Tigers will return home on Thursday against Hoosac Valley at 7 p.m.