SHEFFIELD, Mass. -- It was Gwen Carpenter’s night, but Mount Greylock’s game.
Carpenter scored her 1,000th career point with a third quarter drive to the basket, but her Mount Everett Eagles dropped a 61-60 loss to the Mounties in a battle of Berkshire County South contenders.
Jenna Benzinger went 9-for-10 at the foul line and scored 23 points and Sarah Stripp scored five points in overtime to lead the Mounties, who struggled early but scored 21 points in high-scoring fourth quarter to force OT.
As Carpenter neared her milestone, the Mount Everett sophomore said she was trying to keep the potential accomplishment in the background.
“Obviously, everyone’s talking about it, so it’s definitely there,” Carpenter said after finishing with 989 career points in last Saturday’s win at Franklin Tech. “But I don’t worry about it too much when I’m playing. I know that as long as we get the win, as long as I’m doing my job, it will be fine, and when it happens it happens. And it will be exciting.”
And it was an exciting game all the way around on Thursday night - just not the win that Carpenter (game-high 33 points) was hoping for.
Mount Greylock (9-2) led, 13-7, after one quarter but scored just three points in the second as the Eagles (7-4) went to the locker room with an 18-16 advantage.
Mount Greylock went ahead in the third as Madison Ross scored six points. In the fourth, Lauren Howard (11 points) and Benzinger combined to go 8-for-8 at the stripe, while Mount Everett got one of two 3s from Kelsey Netzer (eight points) to stay in it.
In OT, Carpenter hit a 3-pointer and went 2-for-2 at the line, but Mount Greylock combined to go 5-for-10 at the stripe, while Stripp hit her team’s only field goal of the extra session.
The Mounties and Eagles will be in the same building again Saturday, but not playing each other. Both will be at Hoosac Valley for the Coaches vs. Cancer event.
The Eagles kick things off at noon against Mahar. Mount Greylock plays Hampshire at about 3 p.m.
The teams will meet again in Williamstown on Feb. 3.
