NORTH ADAMS, Mass — In an intense defensive game with several lead changes, the Drury High School girls basketball team held on to beat Mount Greylock 40-30, giving them their fourth straight win, on Friday night.
Kayla McGrath led the Blue Devils with 11 points, with Jacinta Felix and Danielle Harnick close behind with nine and eight points, respectively. Abby Scialabba and Emma Gilooly led the Mounties with eight points each.
Drury started the game out hot, scoring eight unanswered points, with Mount Greylock unable to make a field goal until five minutes into the first quarter. The Mounties quickly came back, however, making three 3-point shots to give them a lead at the end of the quarter, with a score of 12-8.
Drury coach Ian Downey said the team's defense was solid for most of the first quarter but felt they struggled as the quarter went on.
"Tonight, our man [defense] was really good the first six minutes or so of the game," he said. "And then we kind of lost track of our girls. They hit some 3-pointers in that first quarter because I felt like our legs were kind of getting tired there."
The game remained close throughout the second quarter with several steals, blocks and jump balls from both teams. Drury had a one-basket advantage by the end of the half, leading with a score of 19-17.
Downey said the defensive end of the floor is a point of emphasis for his team and has been all season. He said he expected the Mounties to give them trouble in this game.
"I've been hammering that home all year," he said. "Mainly because we do go through stretches where we struggle to score. And the defense will carry us through those stretches. So it's been an emphasis, and I usually start off with [man-to-man] and see our man's playing. I'll switch to one-three-one and see our one-three-one is playing and then go from there."
The Blue Devils managed to build their lead a bit during the third quarter, giving up only four points to Mount Greylock in eight minutes. Heading into the fourth, Drury had a nine-point cushion with a score of 30-21.
The Mounties did not let the game get away from them, lowering the lead down to only six points, with a 36-30 score heading into the last minute of the game. But a crucial steal from Drury led to two free throws, which pushed the lead to eight.
Two more free throws for Drury brought the game to its final score of 40-30. Downey credited Mount Greylock coach John Jacobbe, who he said coached him in high school, for keeping the game close throughout.
"We both probably run the exact same plays," he said. "We know the plays, we know each other, we've coached against each other the last five years, we played each other plenty of times. So I knew their team is well-coached. I knew they were going to give us trouble on the defensive end, so that's why our focus was on the defense on our end."
The win puts Drury's record at 7-2, with a home game against Taconic at 7 p.m. on Monday. The Mounties now sit at a 2-6 record and play on the road against Belchertown at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
