Bishop Feehan holds off late Wachusett run
LOWELL — With medals dangling from their necks, and massive grins on their faces, members of the Bishop Feehan girls’ basketball team sprinted to the sideline and into a sea of green.
They jumped for joy, stopped to hug one another, then returned to jumping on repeat for several minutes. After losing by 31 points to Wachusett just four weeks ago, the Shamrocks entered the Division 1 final Friday as self-proclaimed underdogs.
In the end, after a thrilling battle that featured plenty of twists and turns late, Bishop Feehan earned a scintillating, 48-40, triumph at the Tsongas Center. The No. 1 Shamrocks (21-4), who fell by 4 points on this same floor to Andover in the title game a season ago, are back on top for the first time since 2016 and second time in program history.
“Since literally the day we lost, we’ve been working for this,” said junior guard Maddy Steel. “We just came together as a team. Nothing can be better than this.”
Senior forward Julia Webster led Bishop Feehan with 15 points, Steel added 12 points, and Charlotte Adams-Lopez chipped in 8 points to anchor a balanced, defensive-minded effort. Navy-bound senior standout Mary Gibbons paced the No. 2 Mountaineers (24-1) with 16 points, and Elizabeth Cain contributed 8 points.
Wachusett cut a 14-point deficit to 2 with 2:12 remaining on a Gibbons layup, then Webster scored and Brooke Canty added a huge foul-inducing basket to make it 45-38 with 1:08 remaining.
“We knew that they would go on runs,” Adams-Lopez said. “We prepared for that. The energy of the crowd helped us a lot.”
Both defenses excelled early, as the Mountaineers used their length to alter shots at the rim and the Shamrocks relied on their quickness to disrupt drives. Adams-Lopez found a rhythm offensively amid the chaos, helping Bishop Feehan take a 10-9 edge through one.
Samantha Carlson and Webster delivered early in the second for Feehan to extend the margin to 15-9, then Cain and Jaelynn Scott converted inside for the Mountaineers. Gibbons splashed a 3-pointer on one end, then Steel did the same on the other, as the Shamrocks took a 22-16 advantage into halftime.
Bishop Feehan surged ahead, 35-21, as Canty and Webster did damage at the rim. The Mountaineers then closed the third quarter behind an 8-0 flurry, capped by a Gibbons bucket in the lane, to slice it to 35-29.
Gibbons and Cain nearly put the Mountaineers in front, but Feehan stood tall to prevail.
“We play off those runs,” said Wachusett coach Jim Oxford. “When we got it to that point in the fourth, I really thought that was a springboard for us going forward. I thought we were going to come back and win it.”
As the intensity heightened, the poise never dissipated. Wachusett never relented, but Feehan leaned on the defensive principles that got it to that point in the game’s defining moments.
“To be able to show up on the big stage like that is really special,” said Bishop Feehan coach Amy Dolores.