NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Meredith Powell scored 21 points Thursday to help keep the Monument Mountain girls basketball team undefeated with a 59-48 win over Drury.

 

Hunter Hassett chipped in with 12 and Fiona Horan scored 10 for the Spartans. 

 

This was the second meeting between these two sides, and Monument (6-0) again started the game with its customary full court pressure, forcing Drury into a lot of early and unforced turnovers. Monument struggled a little bit to score early on, but the continuous effort on the glass helped the Spartans get second chance points and build themselves a 15-6 first quarter lead.

 

“We want to control the board on both ends of the court, and tonight we did.” Monument Mountain coach Steve Soule said. “We put a lot of time into rebounding and using our size.”

 

Drury (1-8) fought back in the second quarter, going on a run of their own midway through. The Blue Devils were able to break the pressure and settle into their half court sets. It seemed liked every time Drury had a run, Monument answered right back with a run of its own. Monument Mountain held a 31-22 lead at the break.

 

“We get down 15 and we go on a run and cut to seven and miss a layup,” Drury coach Ian Downey said. “They miss a shot but get an offensive rebound and put it up and in. Those type of things are demoralizing for a team to have to continually try and overcome to make a comeback.”

 

Monument Mountain built off of that second quarter momentum and push the lead to 12. Drury looked to make one more push in the fourth quarter where they cut it down to six points, but it was unable to bring it any closer due to the toughness and ball control from Powell.

 

“Between Meredith and Destiny [Brown] we are fortunate to have girls that have extremely good handles with the ball, so when it does come down to the end I’m confident the ball will be protected.” Soule said. 

 

This has been a catalyst for Monument’s undefeated start to the season” being able to close games out and not let the pressure build too much. 

 

After a good stretch, the Spartans grabbed their largest lead of the game at 13 and did not look back from there. 

 

Monument will look to continue their winning ways on Saturday against Amherst on the road. 

 

The Blue Devils will look to regroup against Mount Greylock at home on Wednesday. 

 

“When a team like us is trying to learn how to win against good competition we need to learn how to take a punch and punch back, I think we are learning how to do that, but the way to limit this is to not turn the ball over,” Downey said.