LOWELL, Mass. — With about a minute left in the third quarter, as the South Hadley girls basketball team was withstanding another Frontier run, junior Cara Dean shouted to her team between plays.
"We need to stay composed!" she enunciated.
South Hadley had come so close to its first state championship, losing in the MIAA Division 4 final each of the last two years to Cathedral. This time, the third-seeded Tigers were ready. They fended off repeated surges from top-seeded Frontier to triumph, 49-38, at Tsongas Center on Saturday.
"It definitely was a little bit of a struggle coming in and being like, we haven't had great success in the last two years here. But we've used that as motivation," Dean said. "If we want to win, we have to come out strong. If we want to do anything, we have to come out strong. So that definitely was really helpful."
