BOXFORD – Taking on an elite team is never an easy task, especially when you have to do it on the road where the home team often benefits from a home court advantage.
The Peabody girls basketball team learned just how advantageous that edge can be yesterday afternoon in a 78-50 loss to host Masconomet.
The Tanners had no answers for the Chieftains’ patented press which forced one turnover after another as Masco sprinted to a 25-11 lead after the opening quarter.
They also had no answers for Masco’s diminutive point guard Mak Graves, who torched the Tanners with six 3-pointers and 22 points in the first half alone, helping the Chieftains boost their lead to a comfortable 28-point margin, 47-19, going into the second half. She exited the game with about three minutes left in the third quarter after putting up a double-double with 27 points and 10 steals.
“It’s tough playing here in this building because they press and it’s a very small gym, which is to their advantage, without question,” said Peabody coach Stan McKeen. “We don’t have the best depth in overly-skilled ball handlers, and we also don’t have the speed that they do. Plus their 3-point shooting, especially Graves, was phenomenal, and we knew that going in it was going to be a very tough game.
“But we didn’t quit the whole game and they played hard the whole game long. As a coach, that’s all I can ask for.”
Trailing by 14 points going into the second quarter, things went from bad to worse for the Tanners after the Chieftains went on a 10-0 in the first 1:10 to stretch their lead to 35-11. Peabody junior Catherine Manning temporarily stopped the bleeding on the Tanners’ next possession with a hard fought hoop in the paint. But the Chieftains scored 10 of the next 12 points to open up a 43-13 lead.
Peabody closed out the half with a 6-4 run on a pair of free throws by Kristina Rossignoll, a steal and 3-pointer by Jordan Muse and a free throw by Serena Laro.
The Tanners came out strong in the second half and cut the deficit to 47-24 on another Manning hoop and 3-pointer by Muse, but that was as close as the Tanners would come as the Chieftains responded with a 14-0 run to take its largest lead of the contest, 61-24, with a little more than three minutes left in the third quarter.
Trailing 66-30 going into the final eight minutes, the Tanners showed their pride and outscored the Chieftains, 20-12, to close out the game.
“The kids never quit so I was very proud of the effort they put into the game today,” said McKeen. “Today I just wanted a good effort and they didn’t quit. We would have stood a much better chance playing them in our gym. You know, though, next year, we alternate sites so all I can think of is next year may be different.”
McKeen singled out the efforts of Alyssa Saraceni, Rossignoll and Jordyn Carpenter.
“Alyssa was our best player today and she had a tough task having to defend Mak, but played great defense the whole game,” he said. “And also Kristina and Jonalyn played tough today as well.”
Rossignoll scored a team-high nine points, while Manning finished with seven and Brooke Hodas and Muse had six.
Masco’s Sara Fogarty scored 14 points while teammate Paige Amyouny finished with 11.
Peabody, which fell to 3-7, plays Salem on Tuesday.
“We have 10 games left and Salem is a winnable game for us if we play good basketball,” said McKeen.
