Devils Open Season by Beating Rival 'Canes
ADAMS, Mass — It's hard to blame the Drury and Hoosac Valley girls' basketball teams for the first half of Wednesday night's game between the two rivals.It's very rare to see these two programs, this great rivalry played this early in the season. Given the fact that the Hurricanes were playing just their second game of the year, that the Blue Devils were playing their first and that the game was being held in a strange, extra-loud, smaller gymnasium at Adams Memorial School, one could expect the two squads to get out of the box a
little slower than usual. While the fans were running on all cylinders right from the opening tip, it took Drury and Hoosac a little while longer to get their sea legs underneath them. The Devils were able to finish better early, opening an 8-0 lead out of the gate before going into halftime with a 16-8 advantage. John Franzoni's squad really turned it on in third quarter, however, outscoring the hosts 18-12 to cruise to a 48-34 victory on the road.
It wasn't always pretty for Drury, but a double-digit win over their No. 1 rival is something Franzoni is willing to take this early in the season.
"We have some young kids that we need to get some experience, and I think we did a good job of that tonight," Franzoni said. "There is no tougher place to play than here, so if you can come here and play with the confidence that we played with in the second half than you're doing OK. "
"I thought Hoosac did a good job of cutting [the score] down to 20-15, but our defense locked in and we got a nice 12-0 run going. It was a good effort to win on their court."
The third quarter loomed large for the Blue Devils, who finally settled down long enough to put a nice run together. The Hurricanes (1-1) started the second half strong, cutting Drury's lead down to five points on consecutive lay ins from senior Erica Mach (10 points, eight rebounds). The Devils took control from there, however, going on a 14-3 run that gave them a 16-point lead near the end of the quarter. Senior guard Mariah Ferrara scored six of her 10 points in the third quarter to help Drury match its entire first-half scoring output in just one quarter of play.
"We were all nervous in the first half," Ferrara said. "As you can tell, it wasn't a high-scoring game. Towards the end of the first half, we started to get back into our game and into our offense. In the second half, we started to get into the swing of things and started knocking down shots. We were swinging the ball and definitely pushing the ball. Coach always says in practice that he wants us to outrun teams and push the ball in transition."
The key to Drury's success was its ability to get out and run the floor. Hoosac was playing pretty solid in the half-court sets, but it had trouble tracking the visitors down once they started running up the court. Sophomore Morgan Lamarre increased the Blue Devils' lead to 15 points with a fastbreak lay-up during their run in the third before freshman Tiana Sims snuck behind the 'Canes' defense to score on a long inbounds play right afterwards. Hoosac sophomore Jenn Gale then knocked down a 3-pointer from the right wing to break up Drury's 12-0 run, but Ferrara quickly answered back with a nifty left-handed finish on another transition basket on the next trip up the court.
"We do a lot of conditioning, and I thought in the second half we just had a little more zip going," Franzoni said of his team's ability to run. "They pressured, and I think Coach Wojcik does a great job with that team, but I think our conditioning paid off in the second half. Mariah, Ali [Tatro], Danielle [Racette], Morgan and Shannon [Garvey] are all in great shape, and they can run all day. We have four post players that can run. I think we're just a little more athletic than we were in the past, so that's why we want to run."
For the Hurricanes, there are a few things to point to on why Wednesday night's game didn't go their way. Ron Wojcik's club got off to a slow start, turning the ball over seven times before it was able to put its first points on the scoreboard. The Blue Devils took advantage of those mistakes to open the game on an 8-0 run, and Hoosac didn't help itself by shooting 1 of 7 from the foul line in the first quarter. Overall, the hosts shot just 9 of 27 from the charity stripe in the game.
"We were terrible [from the free-throw line]," Wojcik said. "The thing that's hurting us right now is turnovers and free throws. I wasn't happy with that the other night even in a win against Taconic. I thought defenisvely tonight we're still having too many lapses. We're not where we need to be yet defensively. Part of that is our experience, but part of it is I expect more from our starters, too."
After being down 8-0 early, the Hurricanes rallied back to trail 9-5 entering the second quarter. Drury junior forward Shannon Garvey, making her first career varsity start, showed she can get the job done, going on her own 7-0 run to start the second quarter and open a 16-5 lead for her team. She scored three consecutive baskets at one point, the last of which she got fouled on
as she was finishing up a lay-up on a fastbreak. She made the foul shot on her way to scoring nine of her team-high 13 points in the first half. Classmate Danielle Racette also netted 13 points and had a very solid game overall. In her first game playing without former backcourt mate Cassie Lincoln, Racette handled the bulk of the ball handling, pulled down four rebounds, had five assists and made three steals. Those two weren't the only ones to impress on Wednesday night. Freshman Emily Rosse put up her second solid game in a row. After scoring 14 points and nabbing nine rebounds in Monday's home win over Taconic, Rosse followed that up with a game-high 15 points and 11 boards against the Blue Devils. Seven of her 11 rebounds came on the offensive end and at 5'9 in her freshman year, Rosse looks like she could be a player to watch this season and beyond.
"We have to keep working with her and see what happens," Wojcik said. "She's got things she can work on, but she's going to be a great player. Rebounding is there but her free throws, I think she was 3 for 8, so we have to work on her shot a little bit. There are different aspects of her game that we can work on, but she brings a lot to us and we'll be looking to her for big things in the future."
Hoosac is off now until next Thursday, when it plays at Putnam at 7 p.m. Drury next hosts Mount Greylock in the first round of the Gene Wein Holiday Tournament at 7:30 p.m. on Monday.
CLICK HERE for pictures from the game!