English girls fall; coach Hogan stepping down

BOSTON – The English girls basketball team lost their Division 1 state semifinal game Monday to Braintree, 59-41 … and then lost their coach.Fred Hogan, who has piloted the Bulldogs for nine years, announced after the game that he was stepping down.”I’ve coached my last game for Lynn English,” said an emotional Hogan. “I want to do other things … other challenges. I will coach somewhere.”The Bulldogs, who earned their trip to the Garden by defeating Central Catholic in the D1 North final Saturday, proved to be no match for the Wamps, whose sister combination of Bridget (6-0) and Brianna (5-11) Herlihy proved devastating at both ends of the court. Between them, the Herliihys scored 35 points (21 for Brianna and 14 for Bridget).The Wamps jumped out to a 19-6 first-quarter lead, but English climbed back into the game to take a couple of one-point leads before ending the half down by two, 25-23.But the second half was all Braintree as the Wamps quickly got the lead back to double digits, where it stayed for the rest of the game.English’s three senior captains — Catherine Stinson and Deidra Newson (13 points each) and Diondra Woumn (11) ended their careers by going 25-1 and going farther than any English girls team has gone.