Peabody girls top Everett

PEABODY – Some teams live or die on the perimeter and others in the paint. The Peabody girls basketball team punched its ticket to the state tournament with its dominating inside game and that’s what got the Tanners past former Greater Boston League foe Everett Monday in Division 1 North first-round play at Peabody.The Tanners won, 71-55, and will face the winner of tonight’s Revere-Lowell game in the quarterfinals. If the Patriots survive that contest, Peabody will get a chance to avenge a loss to Revere last week that cost it a share of the Northeastern Conference North title.It initially looked like Peabody would sail through its tourney opener. The Tanners jumped out to a 10-0 lead before Everett could get anything going.The Crimson Tide, taking advantage of some defensive changes on the part of the Tanners, turned the “tide” in a hurry, rattling off 14 unanswered points to take a 14-12 lead at the end of the first quarter.Peabody coach Jane Heil did a little fine-tuning and once the Tanners regained the momentum, Everett was in trouble.”We’ve struggled to play well all four quarters all season,” Everett coach Tammy Turner said, adding things went from bad to worse when one of her key players, Lisa Aylward, got into foul trouble.Although the game was still within reach at the half (Peabody led 32-26), it was all Peabody in the third quarter. The Tanners outscored Everett 25-6 with Janelle Rodriguez and freshman Hayley Dowd putting on a show. Rodriguez, who also finished with 20 points and 13 rebounds, pounded the ball inside all night.”I thought Janelle had a great game (offensively and defensively),” Heil said.Dowd torched the Crimson with her ability to drive to the hoop, finishing with 16 points including two traditional three-point plays.Ginny Fleming was immense for the Tanners in the early going, scoring all 10 of her points in the first half. Kaleigh Ryan helped out with seven points. Heil put in her second unit for the better part of the fourth quarter and the Tanners barely missed a beat.Turner had scouted Peabody and knew her team would have its work cut out trying to contain Rodriguez and Dowd. Although Heil knew keeping Aylward from doing too much damage would take some work, she didn’t see Tori Cyrus coming up with 15 points (she was Everett’s second-highest scorer).”She was a bit of a surprise,” Heil said.Peabody, the No. 4 seed, is 18-3. Everett, the No. 13 seed, finishes its season 11-10.