LYNNFIELD — There was good news and bad news at the Lynnfield girls basketball team’s home opener Friday night won by Newburyport, 58-33.
The good news was 3-fold; first, the Pioneers shot nearly 38 percent on 6-for-16 from 3-point land, and also played strong defense early on, holding the undefeated to Clippers (6-0) scoreless for nearly the first three minutes of the game.
The game also marked the return of senior captain of Lizzy Shaievitz, who earlier that day was cleared to play after having being sidelined since the start of the season with a broken femur.
The bad news, however, more than offset the good news as, once the Clippers finally found their rhythm, they were virtually unstoppable at both ends. They capitalized on a slew of Pioneer turnovers and jumped out to a 15-0 lead before Lynnfield senior captain Mackenzie O’Neill stopped the bleeding with a 3-pointer with just under two minutes to play in the opening quarter.
All told, the Pioneers turned the ball over 32 times, which the Clippers turned into 16 points, all on easy layups.
“We started out strong defensively, but it seemed as though once we committed that first turnover, it opened the floodgates and then we committed turnover after turnover after turnover and it was just contagious it seemed,” said Shaievitz, a St. Anselm College women’s soccer commit. “We just couldn’t take care of the ball all of a sudden, and it really cost us in this game.”
Lynnfield trailed 19-3 after the first quarter, but cut the deficit to 21-12 on back-to-back threes from freshmen Caroline Waisnor and Grace Klonsky, but that was as close as the Pioneers would get.
The Clippers closed out the half with a 16-4 run to lead at 37-16 into halftime, then took their foot off the gas in the second half, going to their bench late in the third quarter once the game was out of reach.
“We played with no sense of urgency at times,” said Lynnfield coach Jim Perry. “Credit to Newburyport, they chased down every single loose ball and rebound and hustled to pick up dead balls and capitalized on most of our mistakes. We need to find a way to put our game up a gear, especially offensively as we have struggled to run our offense.
“We are very young at the point and still getting used to the speed of the varsity game, but the one good thing I saw tonight was our 3-point shooting and also the way we beat the press, but we have to find a way to finish our layups and make free throws.”
Klonsky (3 steals, 2 assists) and O’Neill led the Pioneers with eight points each, while sophomore Melissa Morelli (9 rebounds) and Waisnor (2 rebounds) scored six points each. Shaievitz finished with five points and four rebounds.
“One of the good things tonight also was Grace Klonsky produced some points for us, and we need that going forward,” said Perry.
It doesn’t get any easier as the Pioneers’ next game is against defending North Division 3 champion Amesbury next Tuesday night at home (6).
“Sometimes it looks as though we haven’t even practiced together having had to play some of the strongest teams in our league early,” said Perry. “It’s a tough stretch, but all we can do is continue to be positive knowing that we are so young and inexperienced and are going to make mistakes.”
