Duquette Scores 1,000th as Generals Advance in State Touney

PITTSFIELD, Mass. – Jamie Duquette scored 27 points, including the 1,000th of her career, to lead the Pittsfield girls basketball team to a 72-67 win over Stoneham in the Division 3 State Tournament on Thursday night.

 

As she basked in the glow of the individual accomplishment, Duquette was quick to turn the focus to the team.

 

“They’ve been at my side through it all, especially Randi [Duquette] and Charlotte [Goodnow],” Jamie said. “They’ve helped me get to 1,000 points, and I really can’t thank them enough – our entire team.”

 

And it was a team effort for the Generals to get past the Spartans, who led with five minutes left in the third quarter and kept it a two-possession game until the closing minutes of the fourth.

 

Harolyn Castillo scored 21 points, and Randi Duquette added 15 for 15th-seeded Pittsfield (18-4), which won for the ninth time in 10 outings.

 

The Generals will look for their 19th win of the season in the state tournament’s Round of 16, where it will face either No. 2 Norwell or Advanced Math and Science, who meet on Friday evening.

 

For a while in the first half, it looked like the biggest drama of the night was going to be whether Jamie Duquette would get the 26 points she needed to reach the milestone before going on the road in the next round of the tourney.

 

A 14-1 run for the Generals in the second quarter opened up a 34-22 lead midway through the period.

 

Randi Duquette got things started with a bucket at the end of Pittsfield’s press break to give her team a 22-21 lead. Jamie Duquette ended the run with six straight free throws, the last two with 3:39 on the clock to make it 34-22.

 

But Stoneham (5-16) stormed right back, turning up its defense and turning over the Generals on three straight possessions to cap a 15-0 run that ended on a 3-pointer from Ally Carpentieri (team-high 20 points) with 1 minute, 15 seconds left until half-time.

 

The visitors maintained their lead, taking a 39-37 margin into half-time.

 

A Randi Duquette triple with 4:49 left in the third quarter erased Stoneham’s last lead. And two minutes later, a Jamie Duquette putback gave Pittsfield the lead for good at 48-46.

 

Jamie then scored her team’s last four points of the quarter to help it go ahead, 55-52, and give her 23 points with eight minutes to go.

 

It was a five-point game early in the fourth when Jamie was fouled attempting a 3-pointer on the left wing. The hard foul jarred a contact lens loose, but with her eyesight slightly altered, she knocked down two straight free throws to get the crowd excited to see a little bit of history.

 

But the third free throw rimmed out and Pittsfield settled for a 62-55 lead.

 

Again, Stonham struck back, getting within three points at 62-59 on a pair of free throws from Shauna Sullivan (19 points) with 5:16 to go.

 

Castillo hit a pull-up jumper from the right wing to push the margin to five points.

 

Then came the moment the Pittsfield faithful wanted to see.

 

Goodnow fired an outlet pass to Jamie Duquette just over midcourt, and she raced in for a lay-up that gave her 1,001 points in her career.

 

“It’s good to have a little homecourt advantage and for Jamie to get her 1,000 points after the pandemic and everything,” Pittsfield coach Joe Racicot said. “We had four games and she scored 25 points [her sophomore season of 2021]. I’m really happy for her and the team to help her get the points she needed.

 

“She can do it all. She’s been sick, and she’s played through a lot of adversity health-wise. She’s a trooper. And her sister doesn’t let her not play.”

 

Pittsfield led by as many as nine points with 3:29 left, but the Spartans managed just four points the rest of the way as the Generals’ defense took over and sealed the win.

 

Jamie Duquette sealed her place in PHS lore, becoming the ninth girl at Pittsfield High to score 1,000 points and the first since Bella Aitken in 2018.

 

Racicot said he was not too worried that the attention played to her looming milestone would get in the way of the team doing what it had to do to advance in the state tourney.

 

“What I was worried about was when we were down by eight,” he said with a laugh. “The distractions – they were minimal. The kids knew what we were shooting for, and they answered the call. I’m really proud of them.”