Drury Girls Run Past Mount Everett
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – The Drury girls basketball team Thursday forced more than two dozen turnovers through the first three quarters of a 55-30 win over Mount Everett.
Most of those came from the Blue Devils’ full court press – a particular challenge for an undermanned Eagles squad that does not have enough players to practice press breaks, let alone execute them for any period of time.
“I think if we handle the press in the beginning … people start to back off because we can handle it,” said Mount Everett coach Joshua King, who had just seven players dressed for Thursday’s game and no JV team this winter. “But when you turn it over and over and over and over, I would press us too.
“Until we can figure out how to get by it, I would do the same thing.”
Drury took control of the game in the last minute of the first half.
In the early stages, the visitors went up, 6-2, after Emma Goewey scored three baskets in the post in the first four minutes. And a Julia Devoti jumper late in the quarter gave Mount Everett its last lead at 9-6.
But The Blue Devils then mounted a 24-6 run into the second quarter to take a 30-13 lead.
Madison Houghtaling got it started with a drive on the right wing, and Jacinta Felix hit a pair of free throws to give Drury its first lead at 10-9. A steal out of the press produced a bucket by Alyssa Russell (12 points) to make it 12-9 at the buzzer to end the quarter.
The lead hit double digits for the first time midway through the second quarter when Lauren Davis (game-high 15 points) hit a 3-pointer to put Drury up, 23-11. Moments later, she set up Russell for a triple to make it 30-13.
Davis scored from the left wing just before half-time to put Drury up by 20 at 37-17. And the lead ballooned to 30 in the opening minutes of the third quarter when Morgan Sarkis hit a 3 to put her team ahead, 47-17.
Throughout Drury’s dominance of the second and third quarters, the theme was defense and, as importantly, the Blue Devils’ ability to convert that defense into points at the other end.
For a team that averaged 42 points per game coming into the night, the 25-point second quarter leapt off the stat sheet. Many of those points came in transition off of the Eagles’ 11 second-quarter turnovers.
“I remember one day at practice, one of the girls said, ‘Coach, when do you want us in transition?’ “ Drury coach Ian Downey said. “I said, ‘Every play.’
“I said, ‘I want nothing to do with sitting in the half court trying to score.’ Because it’s not easy. … And that all starts with our defense, it starts with getting rebounds, being able to get the ball up and out. And we obviously did that well tonight.”
Drury played well enough this week to win a pair of games and improve to 8-10. The Blue Devils were ranked 36th in the latest D5 power rankings, but those rankings do not take the teams’ last two wins into account. To get to the state tournament, a team needs either a .500 record or a ranking in the top 32 in its division.
That means the Blue Devils have work to do next week in their last two games – more than likely starting in the Western Mass Class C tournament that gets under way on Monday.
Whatever happens from here on out, Downey likes his team’s chances of competing wherever it ends up playing.
“We’ve unfortunately had an inconsistent season, and, because of that, we’ve put ourselves in a position where we’re probably going to have to go on the road to win games,” he said. “That being said, in my opinion, we played in some of the hardest environments on the road. We went to Springfield International [Charter] and were down one going into the fourth. We played at Hoosac, which everyone knows that’s a place you don’t want to play, and we were up six halfway through the third quarter.
“So I’m confident that my girls, when we put it all together, can literally play with anyone in the state. And even though, ultimately, I think our seed won’t reflect how good we are .. I’m still confident we can go and beat anyone.”
Mount Everett (7-11) which was ranked 25th in D5 before losing its last two, will need to do some work in its last two games next week to stay in the hunt for a state tourney spot.