NORTH ADAMS, Mass. -- The Drury and Mount Greylock girls basketball teams Monday combined for nine field goals in the first half.
Mounties freshman Emma Gilooly had five of them.
Gilooly went on to score a game-high 26 points to lead Mount Greylock to a 52-43 win at Bucky Bullett Gymnasium.
“I really thought: OK, guys, we need to hustle, we need to get back, we need to get those rebounds, we need to get open shots,” Gilooly said. “Don’t think, just shoot. And it will go in.
“If you think about it too much, you’re going to get in your head, and you’re going to clank the ball out. We need to just do it. That’s what my parents taught me.”
Mount Greylock coach John Jacobbe said that Gilooly worked overtime in the gym between games to put herself in a position to have a big night.
“Emma Gilooly had eight points against Taconic in our first game and showed no fear,” he said. “Then she struggled in game No. 2 [against Mount Everett]. But to her credit, she stayed after practice, worked on her shot and it paid off tonight. I was really proud of the way she stepped up. Once she stepped up, she felt it, and we got her the ball, too.”
All five of Gilooly’s 3-pointers were assisted -- several by junior Emma Stevens, who had four assists to go with her 11 points.
Madison Ross scored eight despite being one of several players on both teams to battle foul trouble all night. Delaney Babcock and Ciera Schwarzer had 11 and 10 rebounds, respectively.
Jacobbe was not surprised that the Blue Devils were not focusing on Gilooly.
“We have Maddie Ross, who is a great point guard, and they have to respect her driving ability,” he said. “We have Delaney and Ciera inside. And we were able to attack and get the ball to Emma [Gilooly], and she wasn’t in any scouting report because last game she had zero points. And eight the other day, so maybe you take a little bit of notice.
“But she stepped up beyond belief. She has the potential to help us with scoring every night. But tonight she did above and beyond, and I’m really proud of her.”
Drury (1-1) struggled to get into its offense most of the first half but was able to keep it close by getting to the foul line, where the Blue Devils scored all but five of their first-half points.
A pair of free throws by Tessa Zoito midway through the second quarter got Drury within four at 17-13.
But Mount Greylock closed the first half on an 8-3 run that included a Gilooly triple and four free throws by Stevens to lead by nine in the locker room.
The third quarter saw the best offensive production by both sides as Drury cut deep into Mount Greylock’s lead.
Kayla McGrath hit a pair of 3s and scored eight of her team-high 12 points in the third. And Mackenzie Dobbert’s 3-pointer got the Blue Devils within two points at 42-40.
But Mount Greylock got some breathing room with the last bucket of the half, a Babcock 3-pointer assisted by Stevens to make it a five-point game going to the fourth.
The final eight minutes looked like the first, except this time with all the fouls mounting up and key players -- Drury’s Alison Felix and Mount Greylock’s Ross -- fouling out.
The Blue Devils made it a one-possession game one more time when Tessa Zoito made both ends of a one-and-one to make it 45-42 with 5 minutes, 13 seconds left to play.
Mount Greylock finally scored its first points of the fourth quarter with two minutes on the clock when Stevens set up Gilooly for a baseline jumper, the first of three Mount Greylock baskets in three straight possessions in crunch time. Gilooly scored again with help from Ross on the Mounties’ next trip, and Gilooly scored her team’s last points with a bucket from the right wing to make it a 10-point game with less than a minute to play.
“We gave them 52 points, that’s why [we lost],” Drury coach Ian Downey said. “Every team, at some point in the season, at some point during a game, is going to have trouble scoring. And we had trouble scoring in the first half. So you’ve got to play defense.
“I thought [Mount Greylock] did a great job limiting our transition points. I can’t think of any off the top of my head. We might have gotten some free throws out of them, but when it came to fast-break layups, I don’t think we got any. I thought they did a good job limiting that.
“And then, obviously, foul trouble just plagued us.”
Take away the 24 points Drury scored in the third quarter, and the Blue Devils were on a pace to score around 25 points for the game.
“Our defense was really good,” Jacobbe said. “We had a couple of times when we lost girls, and, obviously, we got in foul trouble. A couple of the fouls were bad decisions, but overall our effort on defense and our performance was one to keep us in the ballgame when we went through a cold spell.”
Mount Greylock (2-1) is off until New Year’s Eve, when it hosts PIttsfield.
Drury goes to Chicopee Comp on Saturday.
