The Clock Strikes Midnight on Tomahawks

A hurricane hit the DCU Center on Tuesday night.

The Division 1 Western Mass. champion Amherst girls’ basketball team made the long trip east to battle Central Mass. top dog in the State Semifinals.

The visitors made sure the bus ride back home was an enjoyable one as it knocked off the Tomahawks 49-45 in an overtime thriller, thus ending Algonquin’s season.

“I think we got a little tired, both teams were tired heading into overtime and we just didn’t execute a couple plays,” said Tomahawks head coach Ron Jones, whose squad finishes the year with an 18-6 record. “I couldn’t be more proud of my girls. They played with everything they had. They should be proud of themselves. It was a great season for us.”

With the win, Amherst (22-2) will play in Saturday night’s State Final against North champion Andover. Saturday’s contest will be right back at the DCU Center. Andover defeated South champion New Bedford Monday night at the TD Garden in Boston.  

The loss doesn’t tarnish an amazing season for the Tomahawks, who notched their first Division 1 Central Mass. title in program history and the first since winning the Division 2 title in 1979.

“Even after the game the kids were still smiling, it’s what they do. They’re great kids and they pull for each other,” said Jones. “Obviously we would have liked to play Saturday and in our hearts we know we could have. However, we’re not and congratulations to Amherst, they had a great game.”   

Sarah Dahlstrom led the way for the winners with 11 points while team mate Hannah Lien added 10 points and Emily Bourke and Sarah Merchant each finished with seven points. Amherst’s Briana Leonard paced the Hurricanes with a game-high 17 points. Nkambo Forbasaw also finished in double figures with 14 points for the winners.

The two squads battled tough all night long but with just under 30 seconds left the Tomahawks found themselves on the short end of a 42-40 score. With the game clock winding down, Bourke fired a 3-point shot from the right corner that was off the mark. Amherst gobbled the rebound with 9.2 seconds left forcing the Tomahawks to quickly foul to stop the clock and put Amherst on the free throw line.

Leonard missed the front end of a one and one and Algonquin secured the board. The Tomahawks pushed the ball over half court before calling a timeout with 2.2 seconds left.

Coming out of the timeout, Dahlstrom and the rest of the Tomahawks send the DCU Center crowd into a frenzy when she nailed a running layup as time expired to knot the score and send the contest into the extra session.

Unfortunately for Algonquin fans, the momentum swing didn’t carry over into overtime as Amherst scored seven of the 10 points scored during the four-minute session to secure the win.

Algonquin held a 13-8 lead after the first quarter and maintained the margin, taking a 23-18 lead into halftime. In the third quarter the Tomahawks offense sputtered a bit as the Hurricanes limited them to just seven points. Amherst enjoyed a 31-30 lead heading into the fourth quarter.