Late surge gets Classical girls past English

LYNN – With a little over four and a half minutes left in regulation on Tuesday, it looked for all the world like the Lynn English girls basketball team might be on the way to continuing its dominance of cross-town rival Lynn Classical.The Rams were down by two and had just seen Hannah Byrne called for her fourth personal foul. Yet just when it seemed like the Bulldogs were on their way, Classical turned the tide.Freshman Kristin Lauria’s back-to-back baskets gave the Rams a lead they never relinquished as Classical closed the game on an 11-0 run to take a 44-35 win over English.Click here for a photo gallery.”At one point I heard someone say that we were outworking them and that’s what it was going to take to win this game (Tuesday),” Classical coach Tom Sawyer said. “It’s the little things like people diving on the floor to get loose balls and get extra possessions that won this game.”Another thing that won the game for the Rams on Tuesday was their sheer tenacity on the defensive end. English led from early in the first quarter on but Classical stayed close with its defense and then turned it on, holding the Bulldogs to only four fourth quarter points.”You’re not going to win any game when you score four points in the fourth quarter,” English coach Fred Hogan said. “We reverted back to our 19 points per game form but that’s a credit to Classical. They outworked us and outplayed us.”English led 31-30 heading to the fourth quarter but saw Classical’s Jenna Kulakowski hit a three to begin the final period to give the Rams their first lead since 3-2 in the first quarter. The Bulldogs fought back to take a 35-33 lead on Diondra Woumn’s layup with 5:00 left.Byrne was then called for her fourth foul to further help English’s cause. The Bulldogs, however, couldn’t extend the lead and Lauria hit a layup to tie the game.Her putback on Classical’s next possession made it 37-35 with 2:30 left. Monta Connolly added two free throws after a turnover and the Rams suddenly led 39-35 with 120 seconds to go.”Kristin was just immense on the boards for us,” Sawyer said. “And it wasn’t the glamorous ones, it was the offensive rebounds that keep possessions going.”English failed to convert on its next two possessions but Classical kept missing free throws to keep the game in striking distance for the Bulldogs. It wasn’t until Byrne hit two freebies with 25.6 ticks left that the Classical contingent could finally exhale.”We didn’t have the energy we usually have (Tuesday),” Hogan said. “We usually run through a wall and we didn’t (Tuesday). It was really hard watching that game, I’m sure and it was really hard coaching it.”English was in control most of the first half leading 8-7 after a quarter and then extending the margin to 23-13 with 2:20 left in the half. The Rams called time out and put together an 8-1 run to cap the half as Kulakowski’s three cut the margin to 24-21 at the break.