Fernandes lifts Mount
Guard scores 49 points in three halves for Mounties
WOONSOCKET — Mount St. Charles guard Talia Fernandes didn’t play the second half of Friday’s junior-varsity games as a ringer to help the Mounties overcome the Wizards.
The reason, according to Mount coach Christina Batastini, Fernandes played and scored 30 points in the final 16 minutes of the contest was to show the Mountie how good she can be when she believes in herself and asserts her will on the game.
“She’s a tremendous athlete and we’ve always known she’s had it in her, but she hasn’t always known that,” Batastini said. “We started playing her JV for a few games so she could see how dominant she can be. Typically, I don’t tell girls how many points they’ve scored after a game, but I told her because she needs to know this is how she can play.”
Fernandes joined her varsity teammates after the JV game and delivered the finest performance of her young career. The guard t produced a game-high 19 points and three h 3-pointers to go along with a number of crun cial defensive rebounds in the last three min
utes to lead the Mounties to a 49-40 Division d II home win over the Wizards.
“I was getting a little tired in the second half, but I just pushed through and did the best I could,” said Fernandes, who played all but seven seconds of the varsity game. “Last year was really difficult because I was really nervous on the court all the time. This year, I’m more relaxed and am playing a lot better. I’m doing better, which is giving me more confir dence and making me feel better about what n I can do.”
Mount St. Charles (3-4 Division II) only led by six points with 3:41 left in the game when Fernandes helped lift the Mounties d to their second straight home win. She hit a 3-pointer from the left corner and then she f f produced three crucial defensive rebounds after West Warwick freshman Victoria Bird tried to shoot the Wizards back into the game.
After leaving the game for seven seconds because she was elbowed in the nose following a rebound, the Mountie came back and secured another defensive rebound and hit a pair of free throws to put Mount up eight with 43.6 seconds left. It turned out to be a pretty good evening for a girl who came into the game averaging just six points a contest.
“It took this long for her to realize that she can be an impact player,” Batastini said. “Confidence is a really undervalued part of being a skilled athlete. I played basketball at a really high level with players who were much better than I was and they had much more confidence than I did. I learned at Stanford that the girls that played were unbelievably confident. It makes all the difference in the world when you think you’re good and one of the best players.”
West Warwick (3-4 Division II) has now dropped three straight contests after winning three straight prior to the calendar flipping to 2019. Bird, who has been the team’s top scorer, overcame a scoreless first half to finish with a team-high 13 points and three 3-pointers. Alexia Ledo added nine and Skyla Medeiros chipped in with seven.
The Wizards led 9-7 early in the first half, but they spent the final 23 minutes chasing the Mounties because of turnovers and mistakes.
“We were 4-for-11 from the foul line and we’re still a young team; we start a freshman and four sophomores,” West Warwick coach Steve Lawton said. “We committed too many turnovers. The kids are young and they make careless mistakes, but they work hard and give 100 percent. I can’t question their effort, but it’s the execution we need to be better with.”
For Mount St. Charles, sophomore point guard Riley Sprague added 17 points and Ka- tie Lynch scored seven. The Mounties, who travel to Chariho Tuesday night, led by eight points at halftime before Bird inspired a 7-0 run early in the second half to cut the deficit to three. That was as close as the Wizards would get. WEST WARWICK (40) Kalen Greenhalgh 3 0-0 7, Skyla Medeiros 3 1-2 7, Victoria Bird 5 0-3 13, Alexis Ledo 3 3-6 7, Kayla Kozlin 2 0-0 4, totals 16 4-11 40.
MOUNT ST. CHARLES (49) Talia Fernandes 6 4-4 19, Riley Sprague 6 2-2 17, Callie Thibault 0 0-0 0, Meg Valentine 1 0-0 2, Nicole Lemos 1 0-0 2, Julia Vanelli 1 0-0 2, Katie Lynch 1 4-6 9, totals 16 10-12 49,
3-pointers – WW, Bird 3; Greenhalgh; MSC, Fernandes 3, Sprague 3, Lynch.
Halftime – Mount St. Charles, 26-18.