HADLEY — What a difference a week makes.

Just six days ago, the Smith Academy girls basketball team lost by nine points to rival Hopkins Academy. When Falcons head coach David Zononi saw the MIAA bracket release on Saturday, he was thrilled his team had another shot at taking down the Golden Hawks.

And after holding No. 35 Hopkins to 10 points in each half, No. 30 Smith Academy pulled out a 29-20 road victory in the preliminary round of the Division 5 state tournament on Tuesday night at Reed Gymnasium.

The Falcons head to Lenox for a battle with the No. 3 Millionaires on Thursday at 6 p.m.

“We just hit a few more shots tonight, and we clamped up on defense,” Zononi said of the difference between the two contests. “They put up over 40 points last time, we held them to 20 tonight. Defense, rebounds, all the little things that win games we did tonight.”

For the same reason that the Falcons liked drawing Hopkins in the preliminary round, the Golden Hawks didn’t.

Hopkins knew Smith Academy would be hungry for revenge after last week, and coaches Amy Cyr and Meg Burrington — who each have decades of coaching experience — knew it would be difficult to get the better of them twice within the span of half a dozen days.

“We always say it’s hard to beat a team twice,” Burrington said. “We worked on different things, and we knew they would, too. It was like a game of poker. You don’t wanna show all your cards early.”

After a Maggie Potter bucket put the Golden Hawks on the board first, Madison Zononi responded with a 3-pointer followed by a Caitlin Graves jumper.

Hopkins re-took the lead with four quick points to go ahead 6-5, but a pair of Anna Scagel free throws made it 7-6 Falcons. They wouldn’t lose their advantage the rest of the night.

Behind a relentless full-court trap and a variety of other zone defenses, Smith Academy held the Golden Hawks without a point until the 1:26 mark of the second quarter, helping them to a 15-6 lead.

“We just got after it and committed to wanting it more than they do,” Zononi said. “We threw four or five different defenses at them, so that helped too. Every time they started to figure something out, we’d change it up. That played to our advantage.”

Smith Academy’s 17-10 upper hand at halftime grew out of the break. Emilia Neves scored right away, and after a Cassidy Fyden layup on the other end, Zononi buried her second triple of the night to give the Falcons their largest lead (10) of the game.

“We’ve struggled from 3 all year, and those are big shots that I’m glad she had the confidence to take,” David Zononi said. “I think it helped us stretch that lead out at key points.”

Fyden added another hoop as did Laney Crutch to cut the Hopkins deficit to six at the end of three quarters.

But Smith Academy’s defense buckled down once more, holding the Golden Hawks to four total points in the fourth en route to the win.

Despite the loss, Cyr recognizes the importance of the experience her team gains from playing in a high-pressure state tournament environment.

With six eighth-graders and almost everyone returning next year, only positives can be taken from Tuesday.

“We can see the growth from the beginning of the season to this game right here,” Cyr said. “Our focus this season was to get stronger every day, and I think we really saw that tonight even though we didn’t come out with the win. We definitely saw an improved team.”

Potter and Crutch finished with six points, Cassidy Fyden added four points while Cassidi Mushenski and Chloe Kosciusko chipped in two points each.

Fyden, one of two seniors, gave an inspiring speech to the youngsters in the locker room.

“After this tough loss, as a senior, she gives a great speech to the underclassmen about how bright their future is,” Cyr said. “It was really great and that says a lot about her character.”

For Smith Academy, Scagel and Graves’ seven points were a game-high, followed by Zononi’s six and Neves’ five. Alexa Jagodzinski and Vivian Higuera each scored two points for the Falcons to round out the scoring.

Div. 4 prelim

No. 16 Joseph Case 52, No. 49 Smith Voc 25 – The Vikings’ state tournament run ended in the preliminary round with a 52-25 loss at Joseph Case High School in Swansea.

Smith Voc only trailed 14-10 after the first quarter and 28-18 at halftime, but couldn’t keep up with the Cardinals in the second half. They finish the year with a 10-8 record.