Lee Girls Use Boards to Earn Road Win
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PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- After going to the locker room down by six points at Taconic on Wednesday night, the Lee girls basketball team rebounded -- a lot -- for a 41-37 win.
Brianna Hawley and Kendra Williams finished with 12 and 10 boards, respectively, and Cara Walker grabbed nine as the Wildcats earned a solid 44-29 advantage in rebounds.
They actually had more first-half rebounds, but coming out of the second quarter down, 22-16, Lee coach Jenna Gangell told her squad it needed to step up its game on the glass.
"We were getting outrebounded like crazy, especially those first two minutes of that first quarter," Gangell said. "We really talked about being able to get those second- and third-chance opportunities. And I think we did a nice job of that in the second half."
Taconic coach Matt Mickle would second that.
"We got killed," Mickle said. "They must have had 25 offensive rebounds - at least it felt that way. Too many second chances.
"They're strong, and they're physical, and we, unfortunately, weren't tonight. I would say the offensive rebounding by Lee won them the game. There were possessions where they had two, three chances.
"Rebounding was the name of the game tonight."
Scoring wise, Lee got 10 points from Karli Retzel and eight from Cara Walker. Williams and Hawley complemented them with seven points apiece.
Williams scored all seven of her points in the second-half comeback, which started with an 8-2 run in the second quarter.
Williams got things going when she was fouled in the post and made one shot to make it 25-19. A couple minutes later, Retzel drove and dished to set up Williams for a bucket to make it 25-21.
After Taconic extended its lead back to six, Hawley scored a layup off a press break and then, on the next possession, put back and offensive rebound, getting fouled in the process and converting the three-point play to make it 27-26 at the end of the third
The teams traded buckets to start the fourth quarter, but Lee used a 10-2 run to open a seven-point lead when Hawley set up Williams for a second-chance basket with about two minutes left.
From there, Retzel made three of four foul shots to maintain he lead. Jasmine Rodriguez hit a shot at the buzzer to get Taconic within four.
Taconic's Maddy Quinto tied for game-high honors with 10, and Riana Gittens added eight.
Taconic (1-7) hosts Monument Mountain on Friday.
Lee (5-5) takes a two-game winning streak into Friday's game at Mount Greylock.