Cathedral’s 2nd nature

Champs return to state final

WOBURN — Not even Mother Nature could slow down the reigning Division 4 girls basketball state champions.

Just one day after Cathedral’s scheduled state semifinal game at the Garden was cancelled due to a midMarch storm, it seemed to be right at home with an 84-34 victory over Fenway last night on the parquet at Woburn High.

Cathedral (18-4) led by 32 points at the intermission before cruising throughout the second half on the way back to the state final. Cathedral will face Quaboag on Saturday (3:30 p.m.) in Springfield.

“I am very proud because seeing this group at the beginning of the season and seeing them now, it’s like night and day because they realized that they had to start playing as a team,” said Cathedral coach Clinton Lassiter. “They have worked very hard to get to this point.”

Cathedral jumped out to a 21-9 lead after one quarter behind the play of Taliyah Countrymon (13 points, eight rebounds) and Mackenzie Daleba (13 points). In the second quarter, Cathedral put the game out of reach as back-to-back 3-pointers from Lara Matos (10 points) and Amani Boston (seven points) ignited an 18-0 run for a 39-9 advantage with less than two minutes to play in the half.

Fenway (16-8) finally snapped the run with a bucket from Dasiah Thornton, but the damage was done. Cathedral took a 43-11 lead into the break.

“We work hard at practice on our conditioning because we want to wear teams down on both ends of the court,” Lassiter said. “Fenway is a great team, so we had to use that conditioning, and it paid off for us tonight.”

Cathedral added five straight points from sophomore Dejah Jenkins (eight points) at the start of the third quarter to extend its lead to 48-11.

Once his team’s advantage reached 54-18, Lassiter emptied his bench and rested the starters for Saturday.

“We will enjoy this game, and then move on to the next one,” he said. “The goal is to try and win another state championship.”

Nattaly David finished with 10 points while Me’ara Carter and Janayah Gulley also played well for Fenway in the loss.

STAFF PHOTOS BY CHRISTOPHER EVANS ALL SMILES: Cathedral’s Lara Matos (left, center) is mobbed by teammates (from left) Mackenzie Daleba, Amani Boston and Taliyah Countrymon after Matos’ buzzer-beating 3-pointer at the end of the third quarter last night at Woburn High. And after the...