CHESHIRE, Mass. -- The now 3-5 Drury girls basketball team put up a fight Tuesday evening against rival Hoosac Valley, but the Hurricanes prevailed, 51-27.

 

“It’s going to be different up there, they’re going to bring it on their home court,” Hoosac senior McKenzie Robinson said. “It’ll be another rival game, they’re a good team.”

 

The Hoosac girls got off to a quick 5-0 lead within the first minute on Tuesday. Winning the tip off, senior Emily Rosse opened the night up with a shot from outside; the next possession she was sent to the line putting up two more.

 

The Devils were able to put up seven points in the first quarter, but the Hurricanes trap defense didn’t allow them many opportunities to get shots off.

 

“Certainly they’re pressure is difficult,” Drury Coach Jay Meehan said. “We did an okay job, they get you playing at their tempo and then we’re going 100 miles per hour and we can’t play at that pace.”

 

Drury came out in the second quarter and created some more offensive opportunities, beating the press a couple of times and getting quick layups. They had the Hurricanes' lead within five points, but they quickly went on a run putting the score at 21-13 going into halftime.

 

“In the first half, we weren’t really happy with defense or offense,” Hurricane coach Ron Wojick said. “We cleaned it up in the second half, but Drury played hard the whole game and came at us.”

 

The Hurricanes took it away in the second half, hitting their outside shots and getting second possessions with their offensive rebounds.

 

Although the Hurricanes went on a run in the second half, the Blue Devils fought hard throughout and were able to put up some more points and some from the line in the fourth when Hoosac got into foul trouble.

 

“Our girls play hard every night no matter who we’re playing,” Meehan said. “There’s something a little different about this game, when they see all the red in here there’s a little more to it and it’s not just another game.”

 

The Devils were able to keep Rosse at 10 points tonight; Fallon Field finished with 14 points, and Madi Ryan finished with 12.

 

Drury will get another shot at the Hurricanes on Feb. 2 on their home court.

 

“It is a rivalry game so you’re going to get both teams coming out and playing eachother hard,” Wojick said. “Like I said, I give Drury a lot of credit they played us really hard for 32 minutes tonight and we were fortunate to make that run in the beginning of the second half to pull away.”

 

Drury’s Sarah Lamarre and Molly Moulton finished with 8 points tonight and Jenna Moulton had 6.

 

Hoosac travels to Springfield Friday evening to face Sabis and Springfield College in the annual Hoop Hall Classic, start time is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Drury travels to Monument Mountain.

 

More photos of this game here.