PEABODY — The Winthrop girls basketball team showed no quit Tuesday night, capping off a second-half comeback and stealing a road win, 43-40, at Peabody High.
The Vikings have had a knack for finishing games strong this season and that was on full display Tuesday with a game-high 16 points in the fourth quarter propelling Winthrop to the victory.
“We’ve started games slow and we usually finish strong,” Vikings coach Joe Lowe said. “(Tuesday) we started strong, dipped in the middle and then finished strong. The message was to keep running our stuff, defend and rebound. We ended up doing that and it was ultimately good enough.”
Maura Dorr (game-high 21 points, four rebounds) was one of the key differences down the stretch, scoring 11 of the Vikings’ 16 points in the fourth.
“That’s the thing about Dorr,” Lowe said. “She’ll go off for 27 and then one game she might get 15 but either way she makes the right plays. She tries to involve her teammates and she’s tough. She can do anything. You ask her to pass, rebound, defend, shoot, she’ll do it all for you no questions asked. She works hard.”
Maddie Stiglets (seven points, two rebounds), Lily Pulsifer (six points, two rebounds) and Caroline Earl (four points, eight rebounds) also played well.
“We had a freshman out there (Stiglets) in the last few minutes who did a great job handling the point for us,” Lowe said. “Lily Pulsifer bounced back, she had a toe injury and had missed five games. (Pulsifer) had a great game defensively and offensively.
“I thought Caroline Earl, who has struggled this year, (Tuesday) was her best game start to finish,” Lowe added. “She bounced back and did the things we asked her to do defensively.”
On the flip side, the loss couldn’t sting more for the Tanners, who led for most of the night before turnovers and fouls started to pile up in the second half.
“A lot of it has to do with inexperience,” Peabody coach Stan McKeen said. “At times, we play not to win. The game went from six to nine points to start the third quarter, and then we made some tactical errors. The third quarter has been our nightmare. It’s just frustrating.”
Taylor Bettencourt led the Tanners with nine points and Georgia Leon wasn’t far behind with eight. Forwards Amber Kiricoples (six points, 11 rebounds) and Lauryn Mendonca (five points, five rebounds) also played well.
The first quarter saw five lead changes with the Tanners eventually edging out the Vikings 9-8.
Dorr’s free throw to start the second tied things up but Peabody took control from there. Bettencourt netted a 3-pointer to get things started and back-to-back baskets from Leon and Kiricoples bumped the lead to five-points. The Tanners carried a 22-16 lead into the halftime break.
Emily Carney (six points) started off the second half with a 3-pointer to put Peabody ahead 25-16. After that, the Tanners struggled.
Winthrop chipped away from there and narrowed the deficit to 31-27 after three quarters. Midway through the final frame Dorr got red hot, knocking down a three, converting an and-one and grabbing a steal and scoring on a layup to put Winthrop ahead 38-35.
Peabody responded with a 3-pointer from Bettencourt but Dorr scored another bucket and the Vikings sunk enough of their free throws to walk away with the 43-40 win.
“(Tuesday) was a testament to how hard this team works,” Lowe said. “It’s really all them and I had nothing to do with it.”
Both teams are back on the court Friday (7). Winthrop (9-4) has already clinched a spot in the state tournament but will look to stay on the right track when they host English. The Tanners (5-8), who now must win five of their last seven games to punch their ticket to the postseason, will travel to Marblehead.
