SOUTH HADLEY — When the South Hadley and Cohasset girls basketball teams came out for warmups in the state quarterfinals on Friday, it was clear the Skippers had a massive size advantage.
The Tigers didn’t let them use it to their advantage, however.
No. 8 South Hadley kept No. 16 Cohasset off the offensive boards and behind its packed home gymnasium, held the Skippers to a mere two field goals in the first half of action to build a 21-10 lead.
The Tigers kept Cohasset at arm’s length throughout the final two quarters of action, playing outstanding defense to pull away with a 52-43 victory and move on to the MIAA Div. 4 Final Four.
“This whole year we’ve played teams bigger than us,” South Hadley’s Talia Uribe said. “We have no height. Seeing a tall team doesn’t scare us. We just have to work hard on the boards and we did tonight.”
The Tigers (17-6) will meet the winner of No. 4 Amesbury and No. 12 Hamilton-Wenham in a neutral site semifinal tilt at a date and time to be determined. Those two teams play in their quarterfinal round matchup on Saturday.
“Our goal from the beginning of the year was making it to states,” South Hadley coach Paul Dubuc said. “Now we’re in the semifinals. We’ve lost two games to Amherst, two games to Hoosac and three games to Wahconah this year. We haven’t lost to a bad team. We’re tough to beat on this court.”
Skipper Abbie Goff scored the opening basket of the game but it was all Tigers from that point on in the opening eight minutes. Olivia Marion made a free throw, Alex Jackson drained a 3, Uribe scored inside, Marion made another from the charity stripe, Uribe got to the rim for two and Cianna Gurek made two from the line and suddenly South Hadley led, 11-2.
Drew Alley made a basket for the Tigers and Sarah Chenette made a free throw for Cohasset (13-10) to make it 13-3 South Hadley after eight minutes.
Laney Larsen opened the second with a basket for the Skippers but the Tigers answered with a 7-0 run behind baskets from Ange Bessone, Alley and Gurek to take a 20-5 lead midway through the quarter. The Skippers got back in the game at the free throw line, knocking five down to close out the half and cut the deficit to 21-10 at the break.
It was the South Hadley defense that carried the way in the first half, turning Cohasset over consistently with its press and not allowing any second chance opportunities after missed shots.
“We knew we wanted to come out fast,” Dubuc said. “That team went and beat the No. 1 team [Cathedral] on the road before this. We were ready for them. We wanted to play as fast as we could. We knew it would be hot in here. We’re tiny against everybody but in the first half we didn’t give up any second chances. These girls are tough. We work on it every day, getting positioning, rebounding and putting a body on someone. We know we’ll be smaller than everyone we play.”
While the Tigers dominated the first half, they knew they had a long way to go to secure a spot in the semis.
Both teams found their footing on offense in the third quarter with Marion getting going with eight points in the quarter for South Hadley while Mia Froio made two 3’s and Chenette scored six points for the Skippers. The Tigers held a 37-24 lead going into the final quarter.
Chenette lived at the free throw line in the fourth quarter, knocking down nine shots from the line to keep Cohasset in the game. The Skippers got the lead down to 50-41 with 1:45 to play after a Sara Cullinan basket but Marion came back and made a runner in the lane with 1:15 to play to seal the victory and halt any chance of a late comeback.
“Even in the last few minutes we knew they were capable of coming back,” Marion said. “We just had to match that energy and work harder.”
Marion led the Tigers with 19 points, seven coming in the fourth quarter. Jackson scored eight points, Gurek finished with seven points and Uribe scored six points in the victory.
Chenette scored a game-high 21 points, going 16-for-22 from the charity stripe.
“It’s really rewarding,” Uribe said. “We’ve worked really hard. This season is longer than any other we’ve played so to keep going this long, we might as well try to win the whole thing.”
No matter the opponent in the semifinals, South Hadley will be ready.
“We’ll keep on pushing and go hard every day,” Marion said. “We’ll keep working and stay together as a team.”