SOUTH HADLEY — Following two Taylor Garabedian free throws, Hoosac Valley cut South Hadley’s lead to five points – the closest it had been since the midway point of the second quarter – with four minutes to go in the fourth quarter. The Tigers needed an answer if they wanted to exact revenge on the Hurricanes for defeating them earlier in the season.

And just as they did all night, Drew Alley and Maddie Soderbaum had that answer.

Alley flew in for a defensive rebound on the ensuing Hoosac Valley possession, and sent an outlet pass up the floor to Soderbaum. She cashed in the fast-break layup. Then, Alley finished two of her own to ignite the first four points of a 9-3 game-clinching run that gave South Hadley a 60-51 win over the visiting Hurricanes on Monday night.

With the win, the Tigers have now won six straight games and improved to 9-3 on the year.

“We’re getting better every day, and tonight shows that,” South Hadley head coach Paul Dubuc said. “We’re playing really good basketball right now, but I think we’re only scratching the surface. We can be really, really good. We got length, experience, girls that like each other and play for each other. We’re not getting surprised by too many teams.”

Down the stretch, Hoosac Valley (7-2) played the foul game to try and preserve time and ensure more possessions. But the Tigers stepped up to the line and cashed in clutch free throws to kill any chance at a Hurricanes comeback.

Soderbaum, Alley, CC Gurek, Cara Dean, and Caitlin Dean all made shots from the charity stripe to keep the South Hadley lead above eight points the entire way home.

“That’s all we do, every practice,” Dubuc said in reference to foul shooting. “We do sprints then we do foul shots. Every play we run, we do foul shots after. What we do in the last four minutes is gonna matter, and that usually means free throw shooting. And they were very physical with us, but we made our free throws.”

South Hadley never trailed on Monday. The Tigers won the first quarter 19-14 and took a 30-22 lead into the locker room before entering the fourth quarter ahead 42-35.

Alley started South Hadley’s 18-point fourth quarter with a smooth baseline drive for a layup, and a sweet turnaround jumper in the lane for four of her 17 points on the night.

“Drew was through the roof, and she does that every game whether she scores or not,” Dubuc said. “She deflects a lot of balls defensively, she hits the open people, she rebounds, and she can get to the rack. She does everything for us.”

Soderbaum finished with nine points of her own, Caitlin Dean added eight, Gurek seven, and Cara Dean (six) and Ava Asselin (five) combined for 11 points. Taylor Bullough and Kate Phillips scored four points apiece to round out a balanced scoring attack – something Dubuc preaches knowing he has a team loaded with talent from top to bottom.

“It makes us very difficult to defend,” Dubuc said. “The most points I think we’ve had all year [from a leading scorer] I think was 17. Our leading scorer will usually be between 13 and 15, and then it’s someone with 10 and a bunch of girls with eight or seven. It’s like, who are you gonna guard? And they’re all unselfish.”

A lot of South Hadley’s offense – a unit that has now scored 50-plus in eight of its 12 games – on Monday night stemmed from a relentless effort on the offensive glass. The Tigers generated second and third-chance opportunities on seemingly half of their possessions, the main reason they played from ahead for all 32 minutes.

“It’s one of the things that’s always on our board before the game,” Dubuc said. “Whoever wins the rebounds, wins the game. And we work on that in practice. We hustled and attacked the boards; we’ve played them enough to know where they like to shoot from.”

Hoosac Valley’s 51 points were the most any team has scored on South Hadley during its win streak, but the Tigers still played great on that end of the floor. Garabedian came in averaging 15 points per game, and she entered the fourth quarter sitting at five points before an eight-point final frame helped her to 13.

“I thought we did a good job on her, and we talked about, because she’s a lefty, having help come when she turns to go that way,” Dubuc said of his plan defending Garabedian. “And we were there. We’ve seen quite a few bigs, so we’ve had our practice on them.”

South Hadley travels to Hampshire on Thursday with tip-off slated for 7 p.m.