Warriors outslug Panthers for title
TAUNTON — Sectional finals are notorious for being low-scoring affairs with the emphasis on strong defense.
So much for notoriety.
Cathedral and Coyle & Cassidy hooked up for a shootout in yesterday’s Division 4 South final. When the smoke cleared it was the Warriors who were moving on to Causeway Street with a thrilling 8377 win at Taunton High School.
“I don’t know what I expected,” said Coyle & Cassidy coach Michael O’Brien. “You always worry playing on a big court with the depth perception, but both teams played excellent. We knew our defense was going to be good, even though there were a ton of points, it was tough man-to-man defense. Offensively the kids ran exactly what we needed them to run. They hit the 3’s and layups when they needed to. It was a great team effort and I liked the effort from Cathedral as well.”
Coyle & Cassidy (21-3) didn’t get complacent early on when it ran out to a 19-4 lead behind a pair of 3-pointers from Samantha Hourihan (16 points) and three layups on drives from Rachael Johnson (14 points).
The Panthers answered the surge with a 16-8 spurt into the second quarter and trailed by 14 (46-32) at the half. Mackenzie Daleba (20 points) started to heat up in the second half, scoring nine points on a 14-2 run by Cathedral to cut the Warriors’ lead to 59-56 with 1:31 left in the third. That run swelled to 17-6, capped by a Daleba 3-pointer as Cathedral (17-6) cut the lead to one, 62-61 at the end of three.
Vanderhoop opened the fourth with a 3-pointer to give Cathedral its only lead of the game. A pair of inside baskets by Johnson and two free throws by Hourihan fueled a short run that gave the Warriors some breathing room at 7668 with just over a minute to play.
Kaylee Haynes led the Warriors with a game-high 25 points.
CC’s Kassidy Fields, who scored 14 points, expected the hard play, but was surprised by the high-scoring affair.
“We just went in there thinking we needed to play hard and play our game — and we did,” she said. “We went in the locker room saying they (Cathedral) weren’t going to give up. We came out loose and started to pick it up. I knew that we were going to keep working hard because we really wanted this win. We want to win it all.”