Hot-Shooting Lee on Point against Drury
LEE, Mass — Drury girls' basketball coach John Franzoni thought he had the right game plan in order to slow down Lee on Friday
night. Take away the Wildcats' two biggest scorers and make their other players beat him. While the idea was a good one, the other Lee starters were more than up to the challenge, shooting lights out all night on their way to a 58-41 win at home. Guard Emily Consolati hurt the Blue Devils early on, taking advantage of her open looks to knock down her first four shots of the game. She finished with 10 points overall, while point guard Eileen Dooley was even more dangerous, hitting three shots from behind the arc on her way to game-high 19 points. Those two players combined for just two points the first time the Wildcats played Drury, while forwards Stephanie Young and Camryn Biasin went off for 47 combined.
The Blue Devils (12-3) did a nice job of slowing down Young and Biasin the second time around, limiting them to just 14 and seven points, respectively, but Lee (16-1) found other ways to make them pay.
"While I did think we played well offensively in the first half, we did not work hard enough to get stops on defense," Drury head coach John Franzoni said. "We tried to help off Consolati, and it backfired early because she could not miss. I told the kids that it was not a good game plan, and I take responsibility for that decision. The bottom line is that we wanted to force Lee to beat us from outside, and they did because they are a very well-balanced team, who shot the ball extremely well."
"Our team competed all night, but Lee played well offensively and made good adjustments on defense to slow us down in the second half."
The Devils' offense handled the Wildcats' pressure well in the first half, but couldn't compete with the Lee offense, which displayed good ball movement before finding the open shooter. It was only the second time all season that the Devils' defense allowed an opponent to score in the 50s, the first time coming in a home loss to the Wildcats in early January.
While the Drury offense kept the game close at halftime (Lee led 31-24), the Wildcats defense took over in the third quarter, holding the visitors to just six points as they increased their lead to 12 heading into the fourth. Junior forward Shannon Garvey led the Blue Devils with 10 points, eight rebounds and two assists, while sophomore guard Megan Benoit came off the bench to chip in with eight points.
Drury next hosts Taconic at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday night.