PEABODY — It may not have been pretty at times, but a sizzling hot hand from beyond the arc was more than enough to lift the the No. 4 Bishop Fenwick girls basketball team to a 59-44 victory over visiting No. 5 seed Lynnfield in the Division 3 North quarterfinal Friday night.
The Crusaders drained their first five 3-pointers, all of them in the first quarter, and went to finish 9-of-17 for a shooting percentage of 53 percent for the game.
Five Crusaders made at least one trey, with Veronica Tache’ (18 points) and Morginn Kotchian (13 points) leading the way with three each.
“Every possession in the first quarter was either a made basket or a turnover it seemed,” said Fenwick coach Adam DeBaggis. “It was huge to come out and hit those shots early and that was some smooth shooting, but you can’t just rely on shots and obviously that’s what happened in the second half when we didn’t hit as many.”
Both teams came into the game with first-round byes and off extended layoffs. Fenwick had not played in 11 days, while Lynnfield had not played in 15 and it showed, as the first quarter was chock full of turnovers for both sides.
The Crusaders sprinted out to a 17-10 lead after a Maria Orfanos 3-pointer with 1:30 left in the quarter. A basket from Lynnfield’s Tori Morelli and Grace Klonsky’s free throw cut the deficit to 17-13 before Liz Gonzalez closed out the quarter with a bucket to make it 19-13 after one.
Tache’ drained another 3-pointer to open the second quarter. Lynnfield fought back with a couple of free throws from Cate MacDonald and a Morelli basket to get within five points, 22-17 with five minutes to go in the half. But the Crusaders closed out the half with a 13-2 run to go into halftime with a 35-19 lead.
While both teams struggled to generate offense in the third quarter, Fenwick carried a comfortable 45-27 lead into the final frame and coasted from there, leading by as many as 21 points, 51-30, after an Orfanos steal and coast-to-coast layup with six minutes left in the game.
“They shot lights out and their 3-pointers killed us,” Lynnfield coach Peter Bocchino said. “We focused all week on closing out and we missed out on the closeouts. They had a good game plan on Gracie (Klonsky). We just missed too many bunnies. The kids never quit and we had some success with some adjustments when we went man-to-man.
“Credit to Fenwick as they came up with a very good coaching play and we just didn’t protect the ball tonight as we had a ton of turnovers,” Bocchino said.
Orfanos finished with nine points, four rebounds and three assists, while Brynn Bertucci had six points and eight rebounds. Isabella Romero finished with five points and five boards.
For Lynnfield, Morelli finished with 13 points and five rebounds and twin Melissa Morelli had seven. MacDonald had 10 points and six rebounds, while Riley Hallahan had six points on two treys and hauled down three boards. Klonsky and Caroline Waisnor had four points and three steals each.
With the win, Fenwick (15-6) advances to the semifinal round where the Crusaders will face top-seeded St. Mary’s (TBD), which punched its ticket with a win over No. 8 Austin Prep.
“We just gotta play tough especially offensively,” said DeBaggis. “That last time they pushed us around and we didn’t really get anything going offensively. We just have to play tough offensively. We can play defense with anyone we just have to be able to score.
“We hung tough so this is a good win for us. Lynnfield is a big team and the point guard is so fast. We kind of got lucky because they missed a lot of shots, which I think we helped create that, but had they hit their shots, it would have been different.”
