MIAA tourneys: Samone Young, Easthampton thump Tri-County for opening-round MIAA Division 4 victory

EASTHAMPTON – The Easthampton girls basketball team began its postseason with a bang in its 59-24 win against Tri-County Regional of Franklin, during the preliminary round of the MIAA Division 4 girls state tournament on Monday night.

The 29th-ranked Eagles (12-10) eased past the No. 36 Cougars (11-6) on their home court, with junior Samone Young leading the charge for the hosts with a game-high 18 points. All of Young’s points occurred in the first half, helping Easthampton to huge leads of 22-6 after the first quarter and 39-9 at halftime.

“We knew that if we came out and we had good energy in the beginning and kind of just pushed that we could keep that energy up,” Young said. “Instead of coming out low, like we have been. I think it was crucial to our win tonight.”

Young put down 10 points in the opening frame, then added eight more in the second quarter with a majority of those points coming from within the paint. Young was spectacular down low for the Eagles as evidenced by her ability to grab rebounds with authority then quickly put the ball back up for buckets for Easthampton.

“Samone is amazing,” Eagles head coach Brian Miller said. “She’s so athletic, she just goes and gets the ball wherever it is, which is a detriment to some of her teammates. I’m always like, ‘why is Samone able to get that and you’re not?’ Although Piper [Collins] probably had like 10 rebounds tonight also. We have pretty good size and quickness so rebound and then we just try and get out in transition if we can and make life easier.”

“A lot of our younger freshman stepped up like Lily [Foster] and then myself and Veronica Rapoza stepped up, so I think that was a big part of second chances and getting more points on the board for us,” Young added.

While Young led the team in points, it was a total team effort offensively for Easthampton. Whichever unit was on the floor during the first 16 minutes moved the ball with precision, which led to simple scores for the Eagles.

“Sometimes we get out to a slow start and so tonight we got out, we wanted to get some steals, some turnovers, some rebound and runs, so we were able to get out and run and get some easy baskets and that kind of snowballed with our defense and get some more easy baskets,” Miller said. “I thought offensively we did a really nice job getting the ball inside. We had good interior passing between Samone and Veronica. They were really looking for each other both high-low and low-high, so impressive driving to the hoop. I would say all-in-all, the interior play was pretty good that first quarter.”

Nine other Easthampton players registered at least two points in the opening-round victory after Young. Rapoza nearly reached double figures with nine points while Addie Barr, Grace Pappadellis and Kyleigh Dorman all tallied six points.

The Eagles had dropped four straight entering Monday’s playoff opener, but a convincing win against Tri-County proved to be an important reset mentally for Easthampton.

“I think it was a needed confidence boost,” Young said. “We’re as prepared as we can be to play the No. 4 seed.”

The competition will improve substantially for the Eagles in the Round of 32 as it’ll square-off with fourth-ranked Bourne on Thursday. The Canalmen are 19-2 and have scored an average of 52.7 points in their last 10 games.

“Watched some video, they’re the four seed for a reason,” Miller said. “They’re pretty good. Athletic, quick, good outside shooting, so it’ll be a challenge. But all year we’ve kind of challenged ourselves playing the bigger schools. We play Westfield, East Longmeadow, Holyoke, we play big schools who are aggressive and get up in your face. Hopefully that’ll help a little bit.”

Tipoff for Easthampton’s battle in Bourne is set for 6:30 p.m.

No. 17 Hampshire 74, No. 48 South Lancaster 42 – The Raiders stormed to a 21-5 lead after one quarter and extended the advantage to 39-15 at halftime en route to a dominant preliminary round victory Monday in Westhampton.

Hampshire (13-8) will take to the road for a Division 4 Round of 32 game at No. 16 Uxbridge (15-5) on Thursday at 6 p.m.

No. 21 Winthrop 51, No. 44 Smith Voc 32 – The Vikings saw their impressive season come to an end on the road in Winthrop Monday night, falling in the Div. 4 preliminary round.

Smith Voc closed out its season with a 14-8 record. The Vikings reached the title game of the MVADA small school vocational tournament last week, beating Assabet Valley in the semifinals (51-40) before dropping a 54-35 decision to Blue Hills in the final.

Winthrop advanced to play at No. 12 Northbridge in the Round of 32 on Thursday.

Hockey

Div. 3 prelim

No. 30 Foxborough 7, No. 35 Amherst 0 – The Hurricanes saw their season come to a close Monday night with a 7-0 loss on the road at Foxborough at the Foxboro Sports Center.

Amherst finished its impressive campaign with an 11-7-1 record, reaching the state tournament for the second year in a row.

Foxborough advanced to play at No. 3 Essex North Shore in the Round of 32 on Wednesday.