Lee' 1-2 Punch Too Powerful for Drury
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. -- As the Drury girls' basketball team streaked out to a 5-0 record in the month of the December, the elephant in the room was an undefeated Lee squad due to make a trip to Bucky Bullett Gymnasium just after the new year..jpg) Lee's 1-2 Punch CLICK HERE for more photos!
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Although they've put up some gritty fights over the past couple seasons, the Blue Devils have been unable to solve the Wildcats since they've started their string of winning four straight Division 3 Western Mass. titles. Drury faced its toughest test of the season so far on Tuesday night, and Lee proved to be too big of an elephant to move. Led by the potent combination of juniors Stephanie Young and Camryn Biasin, the Wildcats defeated the Devils 57-41 to hand John Franzoni's team its first loss of the year.
Young and Biasin combined to score all but 10 of their team's 57 points in the game. They got Lee (9-0) off to a solid start, combining to score 15 points in the first quarter as the visitors jumped out to a 10-point cushion (19-9). The theme of the first quarter was the Wildcats' stranglehold on the boards. Lee earned a 14-6 edge in rebounding, 10 of which came on the offensive glass. All of those second shots added up to extra opportunities, both on put backs and from the foul line.
"Our top three things [we wanted to do in this game] was play great defense in transition, limit them to one shot and handle pressure," Franzoni said. " We just did a poor job of limiting them to one shot. Early in the game, they got their lead based on second shots and just wanting the ball more than we did."
"I was proud of the kids for making runs at them, but when you dig yourself a hole like that against a great team, it's hard to come out of it."
With too few rebounds and too many turnovers early on, Drury (5-1) quickly found itself down 16-4. A slump-busting 3-pointer by sophomore Megan Benoit got the hosts back on track, however, and they found themselves competing hard with the Wildcats throughout the second quarter. After junior forward Ali Tatro sandwiched a pair of lay ins around a put back by Young, the Blue Devils started making the game interesting by scoring the next five points to cut Lee's lead down to six. Junior point guard Danielle Racette (13 points, six rebounds, four assists) first hit a stop-and-pop jumper, followed by a three by senior Mariah Ferrara on the left wing. Young answered that with a lay in, however, giving the Wildcats a 30-22 lead at the half.
"We needed to get some stops," Franzoni said of his team's play in the second quarter. "We defended their first shots very well. We've been saying for it for 10 years that second shots win basketball games, and that's what won the game for them tonight. Every time we made a run at them, they got a second shot or they got a good look for Young or Biasin knocked down some big shots for them. You can't give a great team like Lee that many second shots. You just can't do it."
While Drury seemed to make a mini-run in the second quarter, the Wildcats made sure to take back control of the game in the third period. After a tough Blue Devils miss right after the half began, Lee went on an 8-1 run to push their eight-point lead up to 15 points. Biasin hit a ice-cold triple from the right wing to end the run and scored two more big buckets before the quarter ended to bump her team's lead to 17 points heading into the fourth quarter. While Young scored a game-high 27 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, it was Biasin who seemed to kill Drury more, constantly hitting a higher difficulty-of-degree shots that seemed to break the Blue Devils' backs.
Overall, Biasin scored all 20 of her points in the first three quarters of play while also grabbing four rebounds and making two steals.
"People are going to play Young and [Eileen] Dooley," Wildcats head coach Gary Wellington said. "So we asked Cam to pick up her game. She's a very good ballplayer. She has great moves and a nice head fake. She has a real good outside touch. We just have to get her into her rhythm, find her spot and get her looking at the hoop."
Young went on to score seven more points in the fourth quarter, essentially finishing off the game when she drained a triple from the left wing with less the four minutes remaining. Drury just couldn't keep up with Lee, which broke out for a season-high 57 points against the Blue Devils. Franzoni's club will no doubt remember its seven-point performance in the third quarter, the point in which the game got away from Drury.
"We knew coming in that they were a good defensive team," Wildcats head coach Gary Wellington said. "What we like to do is make other teams play to our tempo. We want to play as fast as we can. [In the third quarter], I asked them to get up on their man. We just wanted to get into their face. You don't necessarily have to block their shot, just let them see your feet close in on you. They're going to be looking at you and taking that concentration off of that hoop."
The Blue Devils get one more shot against Lee on their court on Febuary 10th. To make the game a little more competitive, Franzoni feels like his team just hast to play a little tougher.
"It's very simple," he said. "At both ends of the court, in the paint, we have to compete better and limit them to one shot. We have to go strong and finish on our end, too."
Drury next plays at Taconic at 7:30 p.m. on Friday night.