GREENFIELD — It’s not a given that a team is going to compete defensively in a summer league basketball game, but the Greenfield boys varsity team got after it on that end of the floor Thursday against Frontier.
The Green Wave showed a press early that gave the Redhawks trouble, and they jumped out to an early 18-2 lead with many of those buckets coming off turnovers.
That defensive effort led to Greenfield taking a 37-15 lead into the half and it didn’t look back, pulling away with a 59-31 win in a DRIVE League contest at Greenfield High School’s Nichols Gymnasium.
“We’ve been working on our defense,” Green Wave point guard Caleb Murray said. “We have some good offensive players but not so much on defense. Our defense is definitely something we’ve been really working on as a team.”
Jon Breor led the way with 14 points for Greenfield in the win. Murray finished with 13 points, Jacob Blanchard tossed in 11 points, Ollie Postera scored 10 points and Grayson Thomas added eight points in the Green Wave victory.
Trying to play fast is one of the Green Wave’s goals going into next season, and getting reps during the summer should pay dividends down the line as this is the time of year to work on all the intricacies that go into winning basketball games.
“We’ve been trying to work on our press to force teams to make mistakes and be able to run the floor,” Breor said. “We want to be able to push the ball.”
It was a promising winter for Greenfield last year, one in which the Green Wave made a run to the MIAA Division 5 Round of 16.
The Green Wave return their entire starting lineup from that team and are now a year older. The goal is to take another step forward when the season rolls around in December.
For now, Murray said it’s all about finding consistency and playing to the level Greenfield is capable.
“There’s times where you see flashes of what we can be,” Murray said. “We’re just trying to work and get that to happen all the time.”
Luke Howard was Frontier’s top scorer on Thursday, finishing with 10 points after sinking three 3’s. Caiden Manning scored eight points, Rowan Modestow finished with four points, Diego Frazier tallied three points while Ryan Cetto, Garrett Dredge and Owen Babb each had two points in the loss.
Like Greenfield, the Redhawks were able to gain some momentum down the stretch last winter. Frontier won its final two games of the regular season to secure a spot in the MIAA Div. 4 state tournament, and it hopes the momentum gained there can transfer to this coming season.
While Howard said it’s been a challenging summer in terms of results, he’s seen his team grow throughout and hopes it will pay off during the season.
“It’s been a little rough this summer,” Howard said. “We’re not working on anything specific, we’re just spending the games practicing. It’s getting us better.”
The opening game of the night at Greenfield High School saw Easthampton pull away with a 58-38 win over Turners Falls behind 19 points from Trevor Canon-Smith.
Jackson Cogswell, who led Turners with 11 points in the loss, said results on the scoreboard don’t matter this time of year, though his team is instead focusing on making progress with each game.
“It’s all about trying to get better for the varsity season,” Cogswell said. “I played OK. It’s too bad we lost but it’s just about getting better.”
Cogswell said the Thunder are working on coming together as a team on defense and finding synergy on offense, using this time of year to gel at both ends of the floor.
“We’re working on our defense and not turning the ball over,” Cogswell said. “We turned the ball over a lot when we shouldn’t have and our defense wasn’t where it needed to be.”