Intracity
Junior forward Katie Lynch knocked down 16 of her 22 free throws to finish with a gamehigh 23 points, while guard Nicole Lemos chipped in with 13 points to lead the Mounties to their first win of the campaign, a 49-39 intra-city decision.
“We needed this one. I was happy to see the way the girls battled,” Mount St. Charles coach Ray Leveille said after his team defeated the Novans for the second straight season. “One of the things we talked about pregame was how we wanted to come out and have more energy than the other team. The girls came out and met that challenge. We’re not going to out-talent teams on most nights, so we have to out-work teams.”
“We have to bring the intensity the whole game,” Woonsocket first-year coach Mike Cahill said. “When we bring the intensity on defense, you can see we’re a good team. What did we go, 25 minutes without any intensity? We picked it up and started playing. We need to get easy baskets in transition.”
Mount St. Charles (1-1 Division II-North) built a comfortable eight-point lead with just under four minutes left in the second half when Woonsocket wing Alyissia O’Hagan shot her team back into the game. O’Hagan, who poured in a team-high 14 points, scored a basket. And then, after a Mount turnover, O’Hagan hit a 3-pointer from in front of the Woonsocket bench to make the score 37-34.
Danielle Fernandes had two opportunities to cut the deficit to less than three over the next two points, but both shots rimmed out, as the Mounties used the foul line to pull away. Lynch hit three late free throws and Haley Leclerc made four straight after a technical foul to extend the lead.
“We need to cut down on our turnovers, but early in the season I’m going to have to deal with it,” Leveille said. “We need to get used to the pace of play and we’re adapting. The girls are playing hard, which is the biggest thing. We need to compete every night. This win is a credit to them because we’re trying to learn on the fly.”
Leclerc had 10 rebounds, while Meg Valentine had seven boards and Courtney O’Connor chipped in with six.
Woonsocket (0-2 Division II-North) will face another difficult challenge tonight when Jordan Moretti and Johnston comes to town for a 7 o’clock tip. Tuesday night, senior Taylor Webster produced 10 points and junior guard Jasymn Faberlle had seven.
“For us to score, Alyissia has to trust her teammates, but we have to move without the ball to help her,” Cahill said. “We also need to hit open shots. Alyissia had some nice kicks [passes] and other girls did, too, but we just didn’t make the shots. Our formula to win is to create turnovers and score in transition.”
Lemos, who was a swing player on a veteran Mount squad last season, scored seven points in the first half to help the Mounties take a two-point lead into halftime.
“Nicole is one of the people I expected to step up this year to take the scoring load off of Katie,” Leveille said. “It’s just a matter of her being aggressive. When she’s aggressive, she’s a good player. When she’s timid, not so much. It’s me constantly in practice badgering her to be aggressive and attack the rim.”
Woonsocket was only down two points three minutes into the half, but then the Novans hit a dry spell offensively, which allowed the Mounties to build a seven-point lead. O’Hagan and Webster shot the visitors back into the game, but Mount put the contest away at the foul line.