Ouimet, Racette Help Propel Drury Over Hoosac Valley

NORTH ADAMS – In Monday night’s game against Hoosac Valley, the Drury girls’ basketball team had two things going for it that it was missing in last week’s loss to Lenox: a healthy Danielle Racette and a new and improved Kelsey Ouimet. 

 

Racette missed the last game due to illness, but came back strong against the Hurricanes, scoring eight of her nine points in the first half and helping the Blue Devils jump out to a 10-2 early lead. Ouimet did play against the Millionaires but had an off game by her standards, finishing with just four points in Drury’s first loss of the season. 

 

Eager to put that game behind her, Ouimet rebounded nicely against Hoosac Valley, scoring a game-high 15 points to go along with 10 rebounds. Her wide-open lay in off a nice feed from Racette with a minute left gave the Devils all the cushion they would need to earn a 41-36 win over their rivals to the south. 

 

“Last game I didn’t square up, and I had a hard time finishing,” Ouimet said of her performance against Lenox. “Tonight I knew we were playing Hoosac, so I had to play big and box out. I was able to finish tonight, Danielle had a big comeback and it was just great because Hoosac is always tough.” 

 

Coming in with a 2-0 record, the Hurricanes proved to a tough out on the Bucky Bullett Gymnasium floor. Racette and Ouimet each scored four points to key a 10-2 run out of the gate, but some steady play by Hoosac point guard Kathleen Nguyen (12 points, five rebounds, three steals) and a 3-pointer at the buzzer by Beth Hakes (11 points) helped pull the visitors within 12-7 at the end of the first quarter. 

 

Drury (2-1) stretched its lead to as many as eight points twice in the second quarter but once again, Hakes hit another three late in the half to keep the ’Canes within four points heading into the break. 

 

“I think our defense kept us in it, but offensively we were terrible tonight,” Hoosac head coach Ron Wojcik said. “We created some opportunities off our defense, but we struggled offensively all night. We’re only three games into this season, and this is a whole new system for these girls, so we have a long way to go offensively.” 

 

Despite their troubles on the offensive end, the Hurricanes did a nice job of shooting from the outside, particularly Hakes and Nguyen, who drained a pair of triples apiece. Nguyen sandwiched a pair of threes around a lay in by Ouimet early in the third quarter, giving Hoosac it’s smallest deficit of the night at 26-25. Ouimet responded, however, by scoring off a lay in while being fouled. She added the subsequent free throw before fellow forward Meagan McCarthy knocked down an elbow jumper to give the Blue Devils a five-point leading heading into the fourth quarter. 

 

“We played tough tonight,” Drury head coach John Franzoni said. “We didn’t play great, but we played tough. If we play with that kind of effort, that kind of intensity and that kind of teamwork, we’ll be fine.

 

“I give Hoosac credit. They ran their offense through, they got shots for the kids they wanted to get shots for and they hung in there, but the one thing I was impressed with with our kids is every time they cut it down to a one-possession game, we came back with a great possession offensively. We never let them get the lead and every time they got it close, we got a good possession and scored.” 

 

The hosts’ defense also came to play in the final quarter and a half of the game. After Nguyen drained those two 3-balls early in the second half, the senior guard was unheard of the rest of the game. In fact, the Hurricanes only made three more field goals the rest of the way, two of which came on fast break finishes by Tori Rumbolt. 

 

“We just made sure that anytime there was a screen for [Nguyen], we were going to step out and hedge it,” Franzoni said. “We just didn’t let her get any good looks at the basket. She was rushing her shots in the second half, and I thought we did a good job of making her put on the ball on the floor instead of letting her catch and shoot.” 

 

The fourth quarter turned into a defensive battle/offensive struggle for both teams, with most of the points coming from the charity stripe. Drury point guard Cassie Lincoln scored on a driving layup to give the hosts a six-point lead with over four minutes remaining, but the final dagger didn’t really come until Racette found Ouimet all alone under the hoop with a minute left on the clock. 

 

“They were playing zone, and Danielle saw me open,” Ouimet said. “Once I got open, I got ready for the ball to come and I finished. Danielle was a big help tonight. She’s a scorer, and she helps Cassie dribble the ball up. It was a big loss for us last week when she wasn’t here. Last week, we had 22 turnovers in the second half, and Coach said we only had six today.” 

 

It was an effort by his team that was easy on the eyes for Franzoni. With the turnovers nearly cut in half compared to the Lenox game and a much better effort on the glass, Franzoni said he now has something to build off of moving forward. 

 

“You need your seniors to play hard, and I thought Kelsey and Meagan McCarthy both played much better tonight. I thought Meagan got on the boards. She got into a little bit of foul trouble, but they both played hard and they both played tough. Cassie is always there every night, so when you get that kind of effort from your seniors, you know you’re going to be okay.”

 

The Blue Devils play at home again on Thursday with a game against Mohawk at 7 p.m.