PITTSFIELD, Mass. – Ahliya Phillips scored 17 points, including the 1,000th of her career, Wednesday to lead the Taconic girls basketball team to a 46-35 win over Drury in the Western Massachusetts Class C semi-finals.
Phillips was held scoreless at half-time but scored 12 in the third quarter as Taconic erased a 14-13 deficit and took a 31-23 lead into the fourth quarter.
“When you play on the road you’ve got to assume you are not going to shoot it as well as you shoot it at home,” Drury coach Ian Downey said. “You also assume they are going to make a couple extra shots. I think that was the story of the game. They made some shots. We didn’t.
“But my girls played well enough to win the game. Taconic is going to be a high seed in the [state] tournament, and we competed with them on their home floor. I hope it gives my girls confidence heading into the tournament.”
Kayla McGrath scored a game-high 19 points for the Blue Devils, who got seven from Jacinta Felix.
Taconic got 11 points from Madison Winn and 10 from Brenna McNeice.
“Huge congratulations to Ahliya Phillips on getting her 1,000th point,” Downey said. “Doing that after dealing with the COVID season last year is a huge accomplishment. Also shout out to Lauren Davis worked so hard to hold her scoreless in the first half, but Taconic did a great job of getting her the ball coming out of halftime.”
Drury (11-9) learns this weekend where and when it will begin play in the upcoming state championship tournament.
Taconic (11-9) heads to Westfield High on Saturday to face Springfield International Charter School in the Western Mass title game.
