Blue Knights fend off Patriot surge

3 Lunenburg players score in double figures

» the lunenburg girls basketball team held off a late charge by visiting north middlesex regional, 50-43, at the veteran’s memorial gymnasium tuesday evening.

the two sides will meet at the new bartlett gymnasium on friday.

longtime lunenburg head coach frank greene was understandably pleased with the victory, which saw his side put three players — lauren blomgren, lauren ruggeiro and miranda boulay — in double figures.

“that’s our experience, but it was great to see other players step up,” green said. “miranda boulay had a great second half, and that’s big for us. we need her to be the playmaker and take control of the game.

“but (nm) definitely put a scare into us; they started hitting shots.”

north middlesex coach geoff billingham noted his young team is trying to find their footing in the early goings, but rebounded well.

“you’re going to have bad quarters, turnovers are going to happen, and you’re going to miss shots,” he said.

“but made shots are going to happen, and then

they responded.”

The Blue Knights, which put three players in double figures, led for most of the game. A 12- 6 second quarter in favor of North Middlesex, though, gave the hosts a run for their money.

And after Gabby Durham (game-high 15 points) hit a big 3-pointer at the top of the key to give the Patriots a 17-14 lead, it looked like NM wouldn’t go away.

“Having someone like Gabby, who is super talented, get to the rim, and she found ways to get there to score, and she played above her sophomore year,” Billingham said.

But a Boulay ( 11 points) trifecta on the

next trip touched off a 9- 0 run to put the Knights ahead the rest of the way.

Ten first-quarter turnovers prevented NM from getting an early foothold while Ruggeiro ( 12 points), Boulay with a 3- pointer, and Blomgren (12 points) off a helper by Bella Petricca put the Knights ahead, 8- 0.

And with Lunenburg ahead, 10-2 after a Ruggeiro runner to open the second, the Pats slowly whittled that deficit away, thanks to free throws and hoops by Durham, and a neat cut to the left in the lane out of Julia Landry that ended with a layup.

Durham’s triple at the left elbow with less than a minute remaining knotted the score at 14- up before the interval arrived.

Durham hit another triple to open the third, before Boulay matched it some 17 seconds later.

A 16-footer by Ruggeiro followed, before

Petricca came up with a steal near half court and brought it back for the deuce.

And Blomgren capped off the run by bringing a defensive rebound back the other way to put Lunenburg ahead by five, 23-18.

“That long time out (at halftime); you can talk to them more and settle them down, and you get to put them in places,” Greene said. “We told them to relax.”

Landry, who posted a game-high 11 rebounds including 10 on the defensive glass, scored off a Durham helper to pull within three, 23-20, which would represent the closest North Middlesex would get the rest of the way.

“They worked that corner on us,” Billingham said.

“They were just hitting.”

Lunenburg finished 20 of 55 from the floor, while North Middlesex was 14 of 36.