Reading ousts Fenwick girls hoop

DANVERS – Fenwick’s girls basketball team’s season came to an end after losing to Reading 52-42, despite an exciting fourth-quarter frenzy, in the Division 2 North semifinals.”Fenwick is a very dangerous team,” Rockets coach Kim Penney said. “They can go on scoring streaks that can put a game away. But we always play like it is 0-0 and did a nice job on defense.”The Crusaders had a very tough second quarter. In fact, they only scored a pair of free throws, good for only two points.”We’ve gotten into some scoring funks before,” Fenwick coach Tim Harrington said, “but we have never gone a whole quarter without a field goal like that.”The Rockets were also struggling a bit from the field, but benefited from a huge night at the free-throw line by senior captain Jaclyn Lyons. In the first half alone, she went 10-11 for 11 points, and 14 of her 20 points came from the charity stripe. Lyons finished the game with 999 career points. She had a chance to eclipse the 1,000-point mark in the closing seconds from the free-throw line, but she missed for only the third time in the game.In the third quarter, Fenwick finally was starting to get the ball inside, where it had a fairly good size and strength advantage, which led to a 12-4 run to end the third quarter. Lara Bruni scored six of her eight points in this sequence.”They (Reading) did a real nice job collapsing in the middle, taking away the inside,” said Harrington. “We were trying to get it inside all night. We were finally starting to work in there.”Fenwick carried the newfound momentum into the fourth quarter. While Bridget Dullea struggled from the field all day, finishing with four points, she did an excellent job forcing turnovers and setting up her teammates. Her co-captain, Lauran DiCarlo, also played tenacious defense and fought hard for every loose ball. DiCarlo was the lone Crusader to finish in double figures, with 14 points.”Lauran and Bridget are both irreplaceable,” said Harrington. “They bring so much and work so hard. They played great all year and will be missed.”Fenwick fought the lead down to five points when Amy Pelletier fired a three-pointer with only 39.1 seconds remaining, which was the smallest lead since the second-quarter struggles.However, fittingly, the dagger came from Lyons at the charity stripe. In the game, the Rockets went 20-for-26 (.769) from the free-throw line, while Fenwick went 11-for-21 (.523).