Bulldogs escape in overtime against Swampscott

LYNN – For the fans sitting in the bleachers at the Paul F. Cavanagh Field House on Tuesday, the show put on by Swampscott’s Kara Gilberg was worth the price of admission. The Big Blue senior scored 28 points and was almost a one-player wrecking crew against Lynn English.Fortunately for the Bulldogs, they have their own pretty fair player in Jenicia Duggins. And she was able to match Gilberg nearly stride for stride as the Bulldogs tied the game late in regulation and then outscored Swampscott 9-3 in overtime to take an entertaining 53-47 win.”Kara is an unbelievable player and she didn’t want to let her team lose,” English coach Fred Hogan said. “But these girls are a very good team and they showed it in the clutch and again in overtime.”The Big Blue (7-3) were outscored by 15 points from behind the arc and by 10 at the foul line and still had the ball, a one-point lead and a chance to make it very difficult for English (8-1) with 30.7 seconds to go.The Bulldog defense, however, used its trademark pressure to force a turnover with 23.5 ticks remaining. English, though, gave the ball right back on a traveling violation and was forced to foul Elise DiGiangregorio with 20 seconds left.She hit the first shot but back-rimmed the second. Duggins snared the rebound and was fouled in the backcourt with 15.2 remaining. The senior calmly sank both shots to tie the game and then had a chance to win it at the buzzer after Lashaunda Hogan forced a turnover, but Duggins’ short jumper clanged off the front rim.”We had some good shots at the end of regulation to put the game away and missed them,” Swampscott coach Jack Hughes said.In overtime, Duggins simply took over. She hit the first two baskets of the extra session and then made a slick feed to Olivia Dupree for a layup that made it 50-45. Gilberg stemmed the tide momentarily with a runner in the lane but Duggins hit three free throws in the final 1:03 to ice the game.”It was just back and forth the entire way,” Hogan said. “It seemed like whoever had the ball last was going to win and that’s nearly how it turned out.”Big-time runs were the name of the game in the first half as the Big Blue jumped to a quick 4-0 lead before English responded with a 15-3 spurt to take an eight-point lead late in the first quarter.Swampscott returned the favor with a 15-1 run that stretched into the second quarter to lead 19-16. English charged back with a 14-1 run that stretched into the third quarter to take its biggest lead at 30-20.Gilberg then scored seven of the next nine points in a little under two minutes to help Swampscott cut the gap back to one. Five late points from Tara Gallagher sent the teams to the fourth tied at 34-34.