Cumberland snaps two-game losing run

Winless Woonsocket cuts deficit to one in second half; Clippers respond

CUMBERLAND — The Cumberland girls basketball team led winless Woonsocket by 10 points at halftime of Monday night’s Division II-North Valley contest and wound up winning the game 49-37 to snap a two-game losing streak.

The win seemed pretty straightforward – but it wasn’t.

Even though the Villa Novans trailed for the entire game, their deficit was just one point with 5 minutes, 20 seconds remaining when sophomore leading scorer Alyissia O’Hagan knocked down a 3pointer as part of a game-high 20-point effort.

Cumberland responded by scoring 3 of the game’s final 15 points to secure a crucial home victory over an inspired opponent.

“First of all, Woonsocket played outstanding,” said Cumberland coach George Coderre, who led the Villa Novans to the state title in 2010. ‘They played with so much intensity. I told my girls that Woonsocket was playing with the kind of intensity we wanted to play with. I told them they had to turn around and match that.”

Cumberland, which dropped decisions to St. Raphael and undefeated Moses Brown last week, heeded their coach’s advice because after stopping the Villa Novans from taking their first lead of the game, Allison Ladetto knocked down a jumper.

Ladetto, who scored a team-high 13 points, stretched the lead out to five with anoth- er hoop and then senior guard Taylor Fay produced two superb defensive plays which led directly to points for senior Julianne Ross to finish off the game.

“We definitely fell asleep a little bit and they started coming down our throats and we weren’t ready for it,” Ross said after scoring 12 points. “Coach talking to us, picked us up and we got the lead back.”

Woonsocket (2-11, 0-9 Division II-North) was coming off a buzzer-beater win over West Warwick and the visitors were in position to win Monday’s game thanks to an array of zone defenses and the shooting of O’Hagan. Outside of the sophomore, the Novans were led by Taylor Webster’s eight points and Jaira Colon’s four.

“We are just one player away offensively from being a good team,” Woonsocket coach Shawn Harris said. “Like I told them today, they are so close to being a good team. We just commit too many turnover and don’t grab enough rebounds.”