English girls ousted by L-S

LYNN – The Lincoln-Sudbury girls basketball team was able to take English out of its element on Sunday at the Paul F. Cavanagh Field House in the Division 1 North quarterfinals.The Warriors managed to slow the tempo down and make English play a half-court game, and the patience of L-S paid off as Ashley Lutz’s 25 points led the No. 7 seed to a 56-41 win over the Bulldogs.”L-S played really good defense,” English coach Fred Hogan said. “And you can’t give up 24 free throws and expect to win.”English (21-3) was never able to fully get its running game in gear as the Warriors’ methodical pace paid off. The Bulldogs were held to 21 points in the first half and 32 through three quarters but were still in a tie game thanks to tough defense of their own.Catherine Stinson’s 3-ball early in the final quarter gave the Bulldogs the lead and fans a sense that English might be on its way. But Lutz responded with a three of her own at the other end and then gave L-S the lead for good with two free throws.The Bulldogs tied the game momentarily on two Deidre Newson freebies but Lutz added four points from the line to make it 41-37 with 4:58 left. English would close the lead to two on a Stinson runner but that was as close as it got.Emily Davis scored three big hoops off the bench to help key a 10-1 run that she capped with 1:20 left, putting L-S up 51-40 and paving the way to its semifinal date with Masconomet.”We scouted them and knew that they were going to be tough,” Hogan said of the Warriors. “And Lutz is a really good player.”The Warriors led 11-9 after one and pushed that margin to 22-11 late in the second quarter. English closed the half on a 10-2 spurt, slicing the lead to 24-21 at half.Scoreless through the first half, Stinson scored seven points in the third to give English a 32-29 lead before Davis tied the game at the end of three.