WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. – Jenna Benzinger scored a game high 20 points to go along with 18 rebounds to lead the Mount Greylock girls basketball team to a 49-42 win over Taconic Tuesday night.

 

Benzinger scored eight points in the third quarter to help Mount Greylock take a 42-38 lead into the fourth. The defense did the rest, holding Taconic to just four fourth-quarter points.

 

“Our defense won the game today,” Mount Greylock coach John Jacobbe said, “We played hard right from the get go but it was not as hard as I know we can play and once we played as hard as we could, we competed very well tonight.”

 

Arianna Walden scored 13 for the Mounties (5-4) and Lauren Howard chipped in six first half points to help the Mounties take the lead in the second quarter, a lead that they would not surrender.

 

For Taconic (1-6), Maddy Quinto scored 12 points and both Janee Walker and Jasmine Rodriguez chipped in with nine points each. For Taconic it was the fourth loss in a row.

 

Despite being down after the first quarter and struggling to find points halfway through the second,the Mounties used a late second quarter push to give them the lead going into the locker room. They carried that momentum into the third as Walden and Benzinger scored 13 out of the team's 19 third-quarter points to lead them to a hard fought win that got them over .500 on the year.

 

For Mount Greylock, the first half of the season has been about setting themselves up for league play. “I think as we get into league play you have tough battles and it’s hard to play that perfect game,” Jacobbe said, “So you have to fight through adversity and not let teams go on long runs.”

 

Taconic hosts Lee Wednesday, and Mount Greylock will welcome Lee Friday night.