FILE PHOTO
Peabody’s Catherine Manning scored 11 points in the Tanners’ win over Waltham.
By JOYCE EREKSON
WALTHAM — Peabody fans, it’s OK to exhale.
The Peabody girls basketball team took its followers on a wild ride Tuesday night, but when all was said and done, the Tanners were able to escape Waltham with a thrilling 67-62 win in the first round of the Division 1 North tournament.
This game was a battle from start to finish, with neither team able to open up any decent-sized lead until the fourth quarter when the Tanners went up by 10 with about five minutes remaining.
As it turned out, 10 points was not going to cut it. This one came down to the final seconds and some clutch free-throw shooting by senior guard Melissa Gray.
With 12.8 seconds remaining and the Tanners clinging to a heart-stopping 63-62 lead, Gray sunk two foul shots to put her team up,65-62. With Waltham senior Sophia Guerrier (28 points) proving almost impossible to stop, no lead was safe. Gray hit two more free throws with 1.4 seconds on the clock to finally put this one away.
Gray had a monster game for the Tanners (14-7). In addition to her nerves of steel performance from the free throw line with the season hanging by a thread, she had 26 points. She wasn’t the only one who came up big, however. Senior Nene Onwuogu was a force of nature in the first half with her rebounding (she had 23 even though she sat out closes to a quarter because of foul trouble) and her aggressive defensive play. She finished with 15 points, with seven coming at the line. The other star for the Tanners was sophomore forward Catherine Manning, who finished with 11 points, seven of them coming in the first quarter when Waltham looked like it might be building a head of steam. She also had a whopping 17 rebounds.
“We never quit,” Peabody coach Stan McKeen said. “That’s been our focal point. We had some lapses when we struggled, but we weren’t going to be denied. We built the lead up to 10 and then they cut it down … Nene and Catherine were phenomenal on the boards and obviously Melissa had a phenomenal night.”
Peabody, the No.11 seed, will play Woburn (18-4) and the No. 3 seed, in the quarterfinals. Woburn defeated Cambridge 60-39 to advance to set up the Tanners vs. Tanners matchup.
The date and time of the game have yet to be determined.
