Jeff Guiel's Tigers jumped out to a 24-5 lead.
AMHERST – Life sure is fun when thing are working out, and things sure worked out for the South Hadley High School boys basketball team Thursday.
South Hadley opened its game against Belchertown with its best quarter of the season as the Tigers topped Belchertown 63-43 in a Western Massachusetts Division II semifinal in front of a good crowd at the Curry Hicks Cage.
Behind its 24-5 run in the first eight minutes, coach Jeff Guiel's team got back to the Division II final for the first time since winning the regional championship in 2007-08. Second-seeded South Hadley (13-9) will play No. 1 Mahar (19-3) for the title Saturday at the Cage at 4 p.m. Mahar beat Drury in overtime 44-43.
“This is a great feeling,” South Hadley junior Anthony Bullough said. “We haven't been here in four years, and I think this is a big experience. We lost nine seniors last year. This is a huge step for us because we're rebuilding. But we have great captains in Luis (Agrait), John (Crespo) and Trevor (Garbacik).”
No. 3 Belchertown, which beat Greenfield in a quarterfinal, finished 17-5.
“We lost their shooters in transition, and that was microcosm of the whole game was finding their shooters and running them off the line,” Belchertown coach Claude Humphrey said. “That's what we've been practicing for the last couple weeks and we didn't do that, and it didn't help that they were on fire. They just didn't miss a shot. You have to give all the credit to South Hadley.”
T.J. Fitzell led the Tigers with 14 points, while Evan Marcus (12) and Agrait (11) were also in double digits. Chris Ladd scored 14 points for the Orioles, and Eric Adzima 11.
South Hadley could do no wrong in the first eight minutes, hitting nearly every shot, including four 3-pointers, en route to a 19-point lead after the first quarter.
“The energy . . . before the game we got ready an hour early with music in the locker room, running around, doing a few laps, and getting our energy going,” Agrait said. “That was the key to a good first quarter for us.”
Much to their credit, the Orioles battled back in the second quarter, as South Hadley's shooting came back to reality. But the Tigers went on a 7-2 spurt in the final minute of the first half to take a 37-19 lead at the break.
“That's happened to a lot of teams in the first quarter: we bring it and then in the second quarter we fall a little,” Agrait said. “We had to re-focused and bring the energy again, because our energy dropped a little.”
T.J. Fitzell inserted the dagger midway through the third quarter, hitting a 3-pointer to put South Hadley ahead 45-23. Belchertown never got closer than 14 the rest of the way. The South Hadley student section patiently waited before chanting “We want Mahar” with 1:49 to go.