Drury Gets Revenge Against Belchertown

By Kevin ShakeriBerkshires.com Sports
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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – The Drury girls basketball team took care of business at home in the second meeting with Belchertown with a, 50-39, win on Thursday night.
 
It was the second time these two teams squared off this month with Drury falling short on the road by six points. This time, things were a little different with senior point guard Jacinta Felix staying on the court without foul trouble.
 
You could see from the opening tip, she is a game changer on both ends of the floor. Felix finished the game with eight points, but it was her defense and passing that got Drury over the edge this time. 
 
“The biggest difference from last game was Jacinta wasn’t in foul trouble. Last game she only played about 16 minutes, and that hurt us so having her on the floor to set the offense and set the tone defensively was huge,” Drury coach Ian Downey said. 
 
It was a well rounded game on the offensive side for Drury with Ashlyn Hayden scoring eight points and Hannah LaCasse scoring a team high nine. Lily Miranti and Addison Shepard also added seven points each. 
 
It was obvious from the way the ball was moving early that Drury was going to be able to get the shots they wanted and they held a five-point lead going into the second quarter, 14-9. Apart from some careless turnovers in the first, Drury looked to get the ball at the rim each trip up the floor, and it seemed to be working all night long. 
 
Belchertown didn’t go away and put some pressure on the Drury defense in the second quarter thanks to Chloe LaRoche, who knocked down three triples in the quarter on her way to a game high 17 points. Drury was able to hold on to a one-point lead going into the break in hopes of finding a solution to stop the big one from knocking down 3s. 
 
The game was won in the third quarter for Drury thanks to a great defensive effort, holding Belchertown to just five points. LaRoche was held to just three points in the half and it was mostly in part to a defensive switch head coach Ian Downey made. 
 
“We made an adjustment in the second half,” Downey said. “Their big is really tough, she’s big. We had the bigs guard her in the first half but she hit four three so we switched off and had Ashlyn Hayden guard her in the second half and just focus on stopping her from shooting 3s and I think Ashlyn did a great job doing that.”
 
While the defense was rolling the offense was equal to the task starting the half on a 9-0 run as they continued to get any look they wanted both inside and out with great ball movement. LaCasse knocked down two big three to help send Drury on its way. The Blue Devils attacked the zone in all the right spots and the 14-5 run in the third quarter set them up to finish the game off in the fourth.
 
“The team knows the thing I stress the most is finishing possessions and that’s on both ends, and I think we did that well in the second half and the score reflected that,” Downey said. 
 
Both teams traded hoops in the final quarter, but Drury was just trying to take the air out of the ball and run some sets to tick that clock down. Drury never trailed in the game and that is something they can look to build off of when they take on Pittsfield, Wednesday night, at home.
 
Including Thursday night, Drury plays its last four regular season games in Bucky Bullett Gymnasium after playing nine of 11 on the road.
 
Drury (8-7) was happy to be home as they've had a tough stretch playing 9 of 11 games on the road.
 
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