Blue Devils Show Up Late in Blowout Loss to Lee
LEE -- The Drury girls' basketball team showed up a half too late against Lee on Monday night, losing on the road 55-29 to the defending Division 3 state champions. The 26-point loss was the largest margin of defeat this season for the Blue Devils, who lost their first road contest of the year to fall to 10-4 on the season.John Franzoni's club looked scared to be on the court in the first half, falling behind 13-4 at the end of the first quarter before the Wildcats (12-0) reeled off the first 13 points of the second frame to build a commanding 32-8 halftime lead. Lee's full-court press forced Drury into several turnovers and killed the shot clock whenever the Devils were fortunate enough to get the ball over half court. The Wildcats didn't miss many outside shots and when they did, they were able to beat the Blue Devils to the offensive glass more times than not.
"We came out and competed in the second half," Franzoni said. "We played with some emotion and some energy. I don't know who that team was in the first half, but you can't play the game without enthusiasm or toughness, and we didn't show any toughness tonight."
"You can't wait until you're down 25 to start playing."
Sophomore Steph Young was like a jigsaw puzzle with a few missing pieces for the Drury defense. The Blue Devils just couldn't find a way to stop the lanky forward, who finished with nine baskets and seven free throws for a game-high 25 points. Lee, also got solid nights from Eileen Dooley, who penetrated through the Drury defense to post 12 points, and Casey Gaul, who shot well from the perimeter to finish with 10 points.
After a humbling first-half performance, the visitors did a good job of rebounding in the second half and were only outscored by two points in the final two quarters. Still, senior forward Meagan McCarthy was the only Blue Devil who looked comfortable on offense. She finished with 12 points and six rebounds, while doing most of her damage in the second half. Sophomore Danielle Racette only scored five points, but chipped in with six rebounds and four assists on the night.
While he thinks his players are certainly athletic enough to play with the defending state champions, Franzoni said they have to play a lot tougher than they did on Monday night if they want to compete with Lee the next time the two teams meet on February 18.
"We have to compete," Franzoni said simply. "We have to play with some toughness and act like we care. We played tonight like everything we worked for the last two months was non-existent. You have to go out and do the little things. We talk about having hard-scoring cuts, being tough with the basketball and defending as a team. We didn't defend as a team tonight. We were locked onto our own players at times. They were cutting to the basket, we let them go and we didn't help.
"Again those are all things that we work on every day in practice, and we didn't do any of them tonight."
Drury has another tough test on Thursday night, when they play at Pittsfield at 7:30 p.m. The Generals won a three-point game the first time the two teams met in early January.