PEABODY — After starting its season with a win, the past two games simply haven’t gone the Peabody girls basketball team’s way.
The Tanners dropped their second in a row with Monday’s 50-37 loss to Danvers at Peabody’s Field House.
Peabody coach Stan McKeen was quick to point out that Monday’s loss wasn’t for a lack of effort.
“They hustled, no matter who we put on the floor,” McKeen said. “The basketball sense, for some of them, just isn’t there yet. They’re learning. We played a decent first half but not a very good second half.”
Amber Kiricoples, who shot 7-of-10 from the free throw line, was Peabody’s high scorer at nine points. Taylor Bettencourt scored eight points, Georgia Leon scored five points and Emma Bloom and Lauren Mendonca scored four points each. Mendonca led Peabody in rebounds with seven.
Cheyenne Nessinger carried the Falcons with 21 points. Sabrina Auciello netted three 3-pointers and finished with 11 points.
“Cheyenne’s a difference maker,” McKeen said. “Unfortunately Amber fouled out. She got into foul trouble and we didn’t have a matchup for Cheyenne. Our shooting was terrible. It was absolutely awful. We made a lot of fouls in the second half. But I guess that’s what happens when you have a young team and you’re developing slowly.”
Peabody had its way out of the gate. Bloom picked up an offensive rebound and floated it into the basket, capping an early 10-4 run and forcing the Falcons to burn a timeout. The early break paid dividends for the Falcons. Danvers picked itself up, closed the first quarter on a 6-1 run and trailed 11-10.
Danvers’ momentum carried over into the second quarter. Both teams traded misses over the first few minutes before Danvers took control. Nessinger converted a hook shot to give the Falcons a 12-11 lead. Freshman Ellie Anderson went coast-to-coast for an easy lay-up and Julia Vaillancourt followed with a finger roll, bumping Danvers’ lead to 16-11. A well-designed play put Peabody back on the board when Isabel Bettencourt found a wide-open Taylor Bettencourt on an inbounds pass and the latter ran in for the easy basket. Auciello splashed back to back 3’s in between consecutive buckets from Mendonca. Leon beat the buzzer with a lay-up to bring Peabody within three, down 24-21 at halftime.
“We couldn’t sustain it in the second half,” McKeen said. “We couldn’t sustain the play. We gave Danvers some easy baskets and they’re too good a team to give them easy baskets. They relied on the ball in the post more so than the outside shooting.”
Kiricoples scored four points in a back-and-forth third quarter. But Danvers matched Peabody basket for basket through the period and did enough to keep the Tanners at an arm’s length. Isabel Bettencourt’s floater in the closing seconds kept Peabody close, down 35-30 heading into the fourth.
Danvers started the fourth with consecutive baskets, building its lead up to 39-30. Auciello’s 3-pointer in the closing stretch dipped Peabody into a double-digit hole and Danvers rolled from there.
“Danvers is a good team,” McKeen said. “Hopefully we can get them the second time around. We’ll play a little better and we’ll have a little more experience.
“We got into foul trouble and Danvers was shooting one-and-one. I knew that was going to be a huge issue in the fourth. But you have to play aggressively. We did and we ended up picking up more fouls. It’s a work in progress.”
Up next for Peabody (1-2) is a home game Friday (2) against Everett.
