Hoosac Valley takes early punch, gets off canvas

DIV. 5 GIRLS BASKETBALL

Hurricanes win state title behind Garabedian’s 22 points

Hoosac Valley girls basketball players, including Taylor Garabedian (35), Genevieve Lagess (5) and Hannah Lord (25), celebrate their state championship win Saturday over West Boylston in Lowell. (PHOTO BY MARK STOCKWELL — BOSTON HERALD

West Boylston’s Madison Pitro, left, lays up the ball as Hoosac Valley’s Ashlyn Lesure plays defense during the Div. 5 state title girls basketball clash. Hoosac Valley won, 71-53. PHOTO BY MARK STOCKWELL — BOSTON HERALD

Image

By Brendan Connelly

Correspondent

LOWELL >> The winds of change have brought plenty of turnover at Hoosac Valley in recent seasons. Yet, despite upheaval, and consistent roster changes, one thing carries on for the regional school. That would be a winning history of hoops, with the latest chapter being added Saturday.

Senior Taylor Garabedian propelled things offensively (22 points, seven rebounds). Classmates Ashlyn Lesure and Abby Scialabba dropped in 16 points apiece as top-seeded Hoosac Valley stormed back from an early deficit to capture its latest girls basketball championship with a 71-53 victory over No. 2 West Boylston in the Div. 5 state final.

“We’ve finished a few hard games,” Garabedian said. “We do a good job pushing the pace, not putting our heads down. We’ve been here before, and we know how to overcome it.”

As fans filled the bowl at the Tsongas Center, a common line of thinking was that Hoosac Valley might be too daunting of an opponent, facing a West Boylston program playing in its first-ever state final. For the Hurricanes? Their eighth in just the past decade alone.

Au contraire. The Lions (21-4) were able shake off the early jitters, as senior guard Madison Pitro guided her group on a stunning 19-1 run spanning from the end of the opening frame until the late stages of the first half. By the time Garabedian and her teammates were able to slow things down, the Hurricanes were suddenly in a unique spot, trailing 25-12 with 6:24 left in the second stanza.

“I guess the difference was that our one (poor) quarter turned into two quarters,” said Hoosac Valley coach Jon Frederick. “At the end of the first, beginning of the second, I don’t know. We just weren’t playing our game, doing what we wanted to do coming in. They might have got the better of us there a little bit.”

Then Hoosac Valley (22-3) began to find its footing behind Garabedian, who netted 17 points over the first two quarters to help the Hurricanes cut it all the way back to 32-31 at the break.

Once the Hurricanes began their roll in the third quarter, there was simply no stopping them. After Garabedian shouldered the offense early, it was time for Lesure and Scialabba to start finding their shots. The seniors combined to tally 25 second-half points, with Hoosac Valley out-scoring West Boylston, 40-21, over the final frames. The win marked the third state championship for the program in the last 10 years, and first in the Div. 5 ranks.

Pitro led West Boylston with 23 points, while fellow senior Sammie Mullins added 14 points.

After celebrating their state title with fans, the Hurricanes quickly sprinted to their assembled seats to watch their classmates face New Mission in the Div. 5 boys championship.

Frederick is hopeful the Hurricanes can continue to build on the basketball empire they have quickly constructed in the Berkshires. For the second-year Hoosac Valley girls coach, it all starts with a strong community pipeline of athletes.

“We can’t stress enough about what we do in Adams and Cheshire,” said Frederick. “We have volunteers that are around with programs for 20 years. It’s not a (situation) where your son or daughter comes in, and you want to coach one or two years. We have people that have been here five, 10, 20 years. We’ve done it through the youth, and it just transposes up through (high school).”