Nothing goes right for Burrillville
Mount Pleasant dominates 1st half to eliminate Broncos
NORTH SCITUATE – There’s no other way to say it: The Burrillville High girls’ hoop team lived the definition of “Murphy’s Law” inside the Ponaganset gymnasium on Wednesday night.
That is, whatever could go wrong did. The top-seeded Broncos sustained a whopping 10 turnovers in the first 5:48 of the first Division III semifinal and ultimately suffered a disgruntling 57-38 loss to No. 5 Mount Pleasant before a packed house.
With the defeat, Burrillville was eliminated from the tourney with a 16-3 overall mark. MP, on the other hand, will face talented Woonsocket in the Division III title game Sunday at Rhode Island College.
Pure and simple, the Kilties (16-4 overall) dominated the boards, forced more mistakes, canned more buckets and played with more busy hands; in other words, they snared many more 50-50 balls.
“I believe we all tried our hardest and did the best we could, but it just wasn’t enough,” junior forward Molly Brown stated while wiping her moist eyes. “They got the baskets they needed and played really tough. It was just an off night for us. We did everything we possibly could.
“After the game, (in the locker room, Coach (Sam Stanton) told us she was proud of us, and how she knew nothing she could say would fix how we feel,” she added. “She also told us how Burrillville just a few years ago hadn’t even won two or three games, and she said we as a team did so much to improve the program.
Photo by Ernest A. Brown
The Patriots had chiseled the WHS lead from 10 to five in the final 1:03 of regulation, but two turnovers down the stretch sealed it for the Novans.
“When they came back late, I just told my team to keep the pace up, that this was our game,” offered Agyemang after the game, one in which she contributed 10 points. “We came in wanting to win the whole thing this year, and we couldn’t do that without winning this one.”
Noted junior captain Tianna Carpentier: “We had to keep up our momentum and energy, especially when they tried to take it away from us. Now we’re going to the final.”
Woonsocket coach Mike Cahill indicated this will be Woonsocket’s first girls’ state final since 2011, and that this group truly deserves it.
“We played hard for virtually the whole game,” he said. “Oh, it was an ugly game with a lot of turnovers (31 total in the second half alone), and the refs a lot go on both sides, but we just made the plays when we had to. Defense won that game for us, no question about that.”
Freshmen Nevaeh Caro and Isabella Mencarini shared the team high in points with 11, while junior captain Abbie Desjardin planted six, classmate Taylor Tempest five and fellow 11th grader Mechayla Hill four.
For the
Pats,
senior Nadine
Ogni finished with 14, junior Kelsey Burr and Hannah French six each and Alysia Medeiros four.
It appeared early on that the Novans would run away with it, as they built a 9-0 cushion at the start and didn’t allow the Pats their first field goal until there was only about 90 seconds left before intermission. Pilgrim, however, caught fire fast, as they cut it to 23-9 at the half.
Thanks to Ogni’s 3-pointers with 13:40 left in the contest, Pilgrim actually knifed the deficit to 25-16, and a Medeiros foul shot cut it to 25-17 exactly 1:48 later.
The Novans nevertheless responded in style. With 11:41 on the clock, Hill landed a turnaround hook, Mencarini a coast-to-coast layup and Caro a pair from the charity stripe to ignite what became an 11-1 flurry in the span of 3:54.
In fact, courtesy of backto-back trifectas from Taylor and Desjardin, the Novans exploded to a 36-18 cushion with 8:08 remaining in regulation.
They, however, weathered whatever the Pats had left.
**
PILGRIM (40) – Tatyana Boiano 0 1-4 1, Jillian Woods 1 0-0 3, Sara Langevin 1 0-0 2, Hannah French 3 0-1 6, Tara O’Connor 1 0-0 2, Gianna Ramos 1 0-0 2, Kelsey Burr 1 3-5 6, Alysia Medeiros 1 1-2 4, Nadine Ogni 2 9-14 14; totals 11 14-26 40. WOONSOCKET (47) – Erinee Agyemang 3 1-3 10, Nevaeh Caro 3 2-9 11, Isabell Mencarini 4 3-10 11, Mechayla Hill 2 0-0 4, Taylor Tempest 1 2-4 5, Abbie Desjardin 2 0-0 6, Peyton Cahill 0 0-0 0, Tianna Carpentier 0 0-0 0, D’Anna Botelho 0 0-0 0; totals 16 8-26 47. Three-point field goals: Woods, Burr, Medeiros, Ogni, Agyemang 3, Caro, Tempest, Desjardin 2.
Halftime: Woonsocket, 23-9.