Early exit
Lynch scores game-high 17 points in defeat to No. 4 EP
In a Division II preliminary round game, the Mount girls’ hoop team was ousted by the Townies.
EAST PROVIDENCE – Mount St. Charles head coach Ray Leveille merely shrugged when asked why his club had notched only 11 points in the opening 13:18 of the second half of its Division II preliminary contest at East Providence High early Saturday afternoon.
“That’s been our Achilles’ heel all season long – putting the ball in the net,” he stated after his gritty Mounties sustained a 47-40 loss to the Townies before a healthy crowd of about 125 at the Luis S. Carvalho Court.
“We’re not the best shoot- ing team in the world; we just have our problems in that category, but I will say we battled,” he continued. “Our goals were to limit turnovers, and I think we finished with 20, which is our season average, and take quality shots. We did both of those, to a certain extent, but we’re just not a high-powered offense.”
With the defeat, the 13thranked Mounties finished 8-13 overall, while the No. 4 Townies not only improved to 15-5 but clinched a quarterfinal bid to face No. 5 Juanita Sanchez at 7 p.m., Tuesday on EP’s home floor.
“The key to the win was a tremendous focus on defense,” noted EP chief Russ Ferri. “It was the best defensive effort – and capitalize the ‘E’ in effort – we’ve had all season. We put in a new defense just this week to help us in the areas in which we’re the weakest.
“We only had two days to practice it, but it seemed like we had had more time with it in this one,” he added. “The communication was incredible on the court, and you could tell as the game went on that the girls became more and more confident on each possession.
“We went to places we’ve never been to defensively, and I’m so proud of the girls for embracing it.”
Senior co-captain/guard Shaniah Hazard paced the hosts with a game-high 16 points, while fellow senior co-captain Lillian Conti collected 13 points and four steals and junior forward/Davies’ transfer Tanya Cooper eight points and a dozen rebounds.
Other contributions came from sophomore guard Ashley Cassino (six points); junior forward Emma DaSilva (eight boards, two points); and classmate Hailey Hannon (bucket, outstanding defense).
Senior guard Katie Lynch produced a team-leading 17 points and five rebounds; classmate/forward Kaitlyn Koller 11 points and seven boards; forward Haley Leclerc four points and eight rebounds; Courtney O’Connor five points; and guard Nicole Lemos two points and six rebounds.
The Townies had entered the break with a scant 20-19 advantage, but needed only 67 seconds to increase it to 2419. Both buckets came on Conti layups after turnovers, but the Mount fought back to knot it for the third time at 26all after Lynch raced around a pick for a lay-in with 9:48 remaining in regulation.
Hannon, however, drained a long jumper 18 seconds later, Cassino an eight-foot baseline gem and Cooper a seven-footer in the span of 2:14 to extend the lead to 32-26. Actually, thanks to Conti’s final trey with 3:47 left, the hosts snared a 37-30 cushion and seemed destined to reign.
MSC, though, had other ideas. Lynch canned a 3-pointer at the 2:42 mark to start it, Leclerc nailed a short jumper and Lynch turned a theft into a basket to slice it to 39-37. When O’Connor landed a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 1:12 remaining, the Mounties completed a 10-4 run and trailed only 41-40.
Hazard spoiled the Mounties’ shot at the upset with a trey with 55.1 left, and a Mountie was called for an illegal screen 9.7 ticks later. Lynch missed a three-pointer at 19.9, and Hzard sealed it with two freebies with 12.1 remaining.
Leveille’s bunch actually controlled the tempo early on, taking an 11-6 lead after Julia Vanelli’s 18-footer at the 10:46 mark of the initial stanza. Hazard, however, managed a conventional threepoint play exactly 1:50 later to give the Townies’ their first edge at 15-13.
The Mounties led only once more, when Koller hit a baby hook with 7:58 left.
“We held them to just 47 (points), and we turned them over (22) times,” Leveille said afterward. “I’m sure that (point total) is far below their season average. We gave them a fight, for sure.”