MARBLEHEAD — For about a quarter and a half, Marblehead and Peabody had a fairly even game going.
Then, Peabody turned on the jets and that was the end at the Marblehead gym Friday night. The final was Peabody 47, Marblehead 24. Yet Magicians coach Paul Moran wasn’t too unhappy.
“I thought for a half we played really well and stayed with them,” said Moran. “But they wore us down.
“That’s a real good program over there,” said Moran. “We have to get ready for (Saturday). We have a big one at Winthrop. We’re a game behind, so this is a huge one for us.”
Peabody coach Stan McKeen was not happy with how his team played in the first half.
“We played sloppy basketball,” he said. “I guess you can’t be perfect all the time.”
Once things got rolling for Peabody, there was no slowing the Tanners down. From the time Marblehead took a 9-8 lead in the opening minutes of the second quarter on a hoop by Annika Haley to the end of the game, Peabody outscored the Magicians, 39-15 — including 18-3 in the third quarter.
In the second quarter, Peabody answered Haley’s basket with quarter-closing 14-2 run.The big gun during the run was Taylor Bettencourt, who scored six of her game-high 12 points during the quarter.
By the time the teams left the floor for halftime, Peabody led 22-11.
It was more of the same in the third quarter. It was a Bettencourt tour de force. The sisters/cousins scored nine of the team’s 13 points in the quarter: Abby five (en route to seven total), Isabelle four and Taylor four.
Lauryn Mendonca also had nine points for the Tanners and Logan Lomasney eight. Both pulled down eight rebounds.
“And,” said McKeen, “Taylor handled the point really well.”
“I think Lauren played really well,” said McKeen. “It was one of her best games of the year. Logan played a good game too.”
Abby Bettencourt and Emma Bloom had six rebounds each, and Abby five steals.
With the game out of hand, both coaches substituted freely in the final quarter and the scoring was spread out as a result. Molly Cronin and Catherine Comstock had four points each.
McKeen said that Comstock gave his team fits on the boards.
“She’s a tough body underneath there,” he said. “But Paul runs a really good program. He does a good job.”
Moran responded in kind.
“Tip of the hat to him (McKeen),” Moran said. “He runs a great program.”
Peabody (15-2) is off until next Friday against Danvers.
