SOUTH HADLEY — The No. 3 South Hadley girls basketball team watched its 29-point third quarter lead slip to 16 after No. 19 Hamilton-Wenham went on an extended 17-4 run into the fourth.

The Generals held the Tigers without a point for nearly the first four minutes of the final frame and seized all momentum of Monday night’s MIAA Division 4 Sweet 16 matchup.

But CC Gurek didn’t let Hamilton-Wenham get any closer.

The South Hadley junior guard buried a triple to get the Tigers on the board in the fourth, and scored another bucket two possessions later to kick-start a 10-1 run that put the game completely out of reach. The Generals didn’t convert another field goal until the one-minute mark of the quarter. 

For the fifth time in six games, South Hadley (20-3) eclipsed 60 points as it sailed to a 63-42 win to advance to the D4 quarterfinals.

“We were kind of slowing down, and it’s hard to get out of that groove unless you hit a big shot like that,” Gurek said of her triple, which was her third of the night. “After I hit that shot, everybody started to collectively come back together and focus on the main goal.”

Another home game awaits the Tigers, as they now host No. 6 Cohasset on Thursday at 6 p.m. for a spot in the Final 4.

South Hadley – winners of 17 consecutive contests – hasn’t lost a home game since the season opener, and the hostile playoff crowds have given each player on the team extra energy from the opening tip until the final horn.

“We get to play here again, and we’re good here. We’re real good here,” Tigers head coach Paul Dubuc said. “We like playing in our gym, our crowds are fantastic, we get great support. We get a lot of people here.”

While offense has been South Hadley’s calling this winter, it was the defense that allowed the Tigers to build an early lead.

After giving up only six first-quarter points, South Hadley held a seven-point lead after one. Kate Phillips swished home a three-footer, then Caitlin Dean splashed back-to-back 3s and the Tigers were ahead 15 in a blink within the first minute of the second quarter.

They never trailed at any point on Monday, and following 22 points in the second, they carried a 35-18 edge into the locker room.

“We were thinking we were gonna play 32 minutes as hard as we can, and we’ll let the chips fall where they may,” Dubuc said. “But if we play 32 minutes as hard as we can and somebody’s not ready to go, they’re gonna have a long night.”

That’s exactly what happened when South Hadley built its early lead.

And as the Tigers continued to wreak havoc on the defensive end and force several turnovers with their 1-3-1 full-court trap, that’s when the lead ballooned to nearly 30.

Having 10 players in the game already in the first two and a half quarters was a huge advantage for South Hadley. Any time one person gets tired, Dubuc can throw another one in the game who is just as capable of making high-level plays. The Tigers’ deep rotation helps them more and more as the tournament progresses.

“A lot of teams think they can run, but they better be able to run for four quarters, because that’s what we’ll do,” Dubuc said. “We talk about it all the time. We wanna be able to slow it down in the fourth quarter, but if we can’t, we’ll just keep going. I can put Cara [Dean], Kate [Phillips] and Taylor [Bullough] in, who are all freshmen by the way, at the three-minute mark [of the first quarter] and we can do whatever we need to do. And then we just rotate. If somebody’s in foul trouble, we don’t have to worry.”

Gurek put the game away with the aforementioned five-point run and finished with a game-high 16 points. Caitlin (10) and Cara Dean (10) combined for 20 points (with Cara netting six straight to end the first half), Kate Phillips added seven points and Maddie Soderbaum chipped in six points in the Tigers’ victory.

Senior Drew Alley, South Hadley’s leading scorer this season, put up the Tigers’ first four points of the game and was held scoreless the rest of the way – yet the club still scored over 60 as a team.

It speaks volumes to just how dangerous this group is, because anybody can take over on any given night.

“They all like each other, and they all seem to play for each other,” Dubuc said. “That’s one of the things we put on our board before games. ‘Open person has to get the ball, take care of each other and take care of your home court.’”

South Hadley is now 12-1 on its home floor, with 12 of those wins coming consecutively after dropping the first one of the year to Chicopee Comp (59-55) all the way back on Dec. 7. Since then, the Tigers have been lights out.

And they don’t expect that to change on Thursday.

“It’s really fun, because you go to school and you’re like, ‘Hey, come to the game tonight,’” Gurek said. “And then everybody shows up and does their themes, it’s fun to have your family and friends watching. We just always bring the energy, and it’s a lot easier to carry here than it is somewhere else. Having everybody cheering for you is a lot easier than [cheering against you].”

Cohasset 56, Frontier 32 – The host Skippers stormed out of the gates with a 12-2 run in the first three minutes, and kept No. 11 Frontier at arm’s length en route to a 56-32 victory in the Round of 16 on Monday in Cohasset.

No. 11 Frontier finished its stellar season with a 17-5 record.

Cohasset (16-7) led 20-7 after one quarter and 34-19 at halftime. The Redhawks weren’t able to close the gap to single digits in the second half, as the deficit was 41-30 before the Skippers pulled away down the stretch.

Frontier, which opened its season with eight straight wins, was paced offensively by Skyler Steele and Claire Kirkendall, who each scored 11 points on the night.

It was the final game for Molly Gates and Hailey Hutkoski, the lone seniors on the roster for the Redhawks.

Cohasset’s Sarah Chenette paced her side with a game-high 21 points.