Dracut, St. Mary’s to meet in final
Ashlee Talbot has 45 points
LYNN >> Dracut senior guard Ashlee Talbot put on a performance Sunday afternoon at the Tony Conigliaro Gymnasium that left many of the fans watching shaking their heads yet applauding at the same time.
Talbot ripped apart Newburyport’s defense to the tune of 31 first half points, 45 in all, as the Middies rolled to a 78-62 win in a battle of two of the top 10 ranked Div. 2 teams in Massachusetts. Dracut’s reward for getting past the Clippers? A date with host St. Mary’s on Tuesday night (5:45).
The Spartans struggled for a half with a pesky Lincoln-Sudbury squad but thanks to 23 points from Niya Morgen and 13 from fellow senior Yirsy Queliz, St. Mary’s exploded for 39 second-half points en route to a 58-36 win over the Warriors.
In the first semifinal, it quickly became apparent that Talbot was in one of those rare moments where everything she threw up seemed to want to find nothing but net.
She began the game with back-to-back threes as the Middies (15-5) opened up an early sevenpoint lead. And she was just getting warmed up.
After Newburyport (163) shaved the lead to three at 10-7, Talbot and teammate Emma Felker (20 points) got hot from behind the arc as their four three-pointers extended the lead to 28-16 after eight minutes.
The Clippers could have easily been run out of the gym by halftime if not for the efforts of senior forward Emma Foley. Her 14 first-half points helped keep the Clippers in shouting distance as Talbot added 13 more points in the second quarter and Dracut took a 46-28 lead into the locker room at halftime.
“Ashley is such an elite player,” Dracut coach Peter Witts said. “She does a lot for us at both ends of the floor.”
Dracut built the lead to 49-30 on a Talbot threepoint play with 7:30 left in the third before the Clippers cranked up the defensive pressure and worked their way back into the game.
Foley, who finished with 30 points, put up eight points and Olivia McDonald hit two of her four three-pointers as part of a 16-4 run in a little over four minutes that cut the deficit to 53-46.
“I thought that we came out a little flat in the third and Newburyport really played hard,” Witts said.
But just as quick as the Clippers had cut the lead to single digits, the Middies retook control. Talbot and Brodie Gannon hit treys to close out the third before Felker and Talbot scored seven of the next 11 points to close a 13-4 run that made it 66-50.
From there, Dracut was able to cruise home as the Clippers got no closer than 13 the rest of the way.
“We were able to play with some poise and passion down the stretch,” Witts said.
In the second semifinal, the Warriors (14-5) got the Spartans (17-2) to play their pace for much of the opening 16 minutes. After St. Mary’s jumped out to a 9-1 lead, L-S rallied with a 10-1 run of its own to lead 11-10 on Katie Rapisarda’s three.
The defensive rock fight continued in the second quarter as both teams struggled to get some offensive continuity. Fortunately for the Spartans, they had Niya Morgen’s ability to bury shots as her third 3-pointer of the quarter came as time ran out to give the Spartans a 19-18 lead at the break.
“The first half was played at the pace that they wanted,” St. Mary’s coach Jeff Newhall said. “And we kind of allowed it to happen. Fortunately, we had Niya hitting some shots that kept us in the game.”
The third quarter would be a much different story as the Spartans defense began to give the Warriors fits, resulting in the momentum of the game squarely turning towards St. Mary’s.
Kellyn Preira, who was scoreless in the first half, scored all nine of her points in the third while Yirsy Queliz teamed with her to put together an 11-4 run to begin the half and open up a 32-22 lead.
The Warriors would be held to just seven points in the third and when Jillian Roberts beat the buzzer with another three, St. Mary’s had things in control with a 42-25 lead.
Morgen added nine more points in the fourth as the lead grew to 22 before both teams emptied the benches.