PEABODY — The Peabody girls basketball team may have gotten into some foul trouble and had some issues at the free throw line Tuesday night, but in the end the Tanners were able to string together enough solid plays to pull away from Lynn Classical in the second half and pick up a 61-37 win in a Division 1 preliminary round game at Peabody Veterans Memorial High School.
“A win’s a win, and that’s kind of how you have to look at things at this point in the season,” said Peabody coach Stan McKeen. “We had three of our top players in foul trouble and we had terrible free-throw shooting for the most part, but defensively we played well and we were able to score enough points to get the victory.”
Abby Bettencourt led the way for Peabody with 15 points and three rebounds, while Emma Bloom was close behind with 12 points and six rebounds. Isabel Bettencourt notched eight points and two rebounds, Taylor Bettencourt had six points and eight rebounds, Jessica Richards had six points and six rebounds and Logan Lomasney had four points, nine rebounds and two blocks. Lauryn Mendonca also played well with five points and six rebounds.
For Classical, Reese Brinkler led the way with 10 points and eight rebounds. Ava Thurman notched eight points and four rebounds, while Lauren Wilson (seven points), Lauren Hennessey (five points, three rebounds) and Molly Mannion (two points, six rebounds) also played well.
“Coming into this game we knew that Peabody scored most of its points off of turnovers and off of offensive rebounds, and we really worked hard on not allowing them to beat us in those ways,” said Classical coach Tom Sawyer. “We did a good job of not letting their press beat us, but I think eventually they were just able to wear us down on the glass and get those extra points to pull away.”
The two teams battled through an up-and-down first quarter, which at one point looked like it was going to kickstart a high-scoring affair. But things slowed down a little bit towards the end of the frame, and by the time the buzzer sounded Peabody was able to take an 18-12 lead into the second quarter.
It was a similar story in the second, as Peabody was able to make some big plays on the boards and get some second-chance points to help stretch its lead out. By the time the halftime buzzer sounded, Peabody held a 29-20 lead.
The third quarter is where Peabody was able to finally stretch out its lead, capitalizing on some turnovers to get some transition points and also continuing its solid play on the offensive and defensive glass. The lead was stretched to as many as 13 points in the third quarter and then up to 17 points in the fourth before the Tanners were able to coast to the victory.
Classical closes out the season at 16-5.
“I said coming into the year that this was a great group of girls led by our two seniors Molly Mannion and Reese Brinkler, and they’ve all been incredible the entire year,” said Sawyer. “If you look up ‘student-athlete’ in the dictionary, you’d see a picture of Reese and Molly. They’ve been instrumental for us for a few years now, and we’re going to miss them greatly. But it was a great season overall and one game at the end doesn’t sour things for us.”
Peabody (18-3) now moves on to the Round of 32, where it will take on No. 5 Bishop Feehan Friday night (7) on the road.
“It’s going to be a lot different going on the road and making a two-hour trip down to Feehan for the next one,” said McKeen. “It’s going to be a tough test, and we’re going to need to shoot a lot better from the free throw line, but if we can keep playing this brand of basketball and stay solid on defense, we’ll have a shot.”
