PEABODY – This one was never in doubt.
The No. 29 Peabody girls basketball team was on a mission against visiting No. 36 Beverly Monday night in the preliminary round of the MIAA Division 1 state tournament.
The Tanners played with intensity on both ends of the court and led by 15 at the half, 31-16, then kept their foot on the gas to lead by as many as 22 in the fourth.
The Panthers twice got the lead down to 14, but it was too little, too late with the Tanners prevailing, 62-45, to advance to the Round of 32 against No. 4 Woburn (TBD).
“I’m proud of my teammates because the last time we played Beverly (a 56-55 Tanners’ loss), we were not ready to go,” said senior captain Logan Lomasney, who scored a game-high 19 points with eight rebounds. “We came out with the best energy we’ve had the whole year long at the best time of the year. We have a lot of underclassmen and this was the first tournament game for them. They showed up and came to play.”
Head coach Stan McKeen said his Tanners have struggled generating offense in the first half for much of the year, but not Monday night.
“Today, scoring 31 points in the first half made the difference,” he said. “They made some runs at times, but we never let them get back in the game. We were determined. We weren’t going to lose the last game of the season at home.”
The game was a contrast in styles, with the Tanners pounding the ball down low for easy layups early and Beverly shooting bombs away from behind the arc.
“Beverly had the advantage in outside shooters, but they don’t have size down low,” McKeen said. “We were getting the ball down low to make our shots and they didn’t hit theirs.”
Peabody jumped out to a 14-9 lead after the first quarter. A three from Lomasney, and a steal-and-dish from Olivia Gaynor (2 points) to Ally Bettencourt (13 points) added two more. Then, senior captain Abby Bettencourt (7 points, 9 assists, 6 rebounds) passed one to sister Lizzy Bettencourt (8 points, 3 assists) for a layup that bumped the lead to 21-9 and swung all the momentum in Peabody’s favor.
The Tanners carried it into the third quarter, thanks to the Abby Bettencourt show. She kept pace with the Panthers, whose offense started clicking. All Bettencourt did was open the scoring with a layup and steal, going coast-to-coast on the latter for another layup. After a Beverly miss, she grabbed the rebound and fed Lizzy for another layup to put the Tanners up by 17, 35-18, with six minutes to go in the quarter.
A few minutes later, Lomasney drained a three to give Peabody its largest lead at 49-27.
Beverly went on an 11-2 run to cut the deficit to 53-38. Sophia Coburn (6 points, 7 rebounds) finished a feed from Lomasney to restore order with a spinning layup that made it 53-38 with eight minutes to go.
A key player all night long for Beverly was freshman point guard Julianna Stevenson (17 points), arguably the tiniest player on the court, earning praise from Lomasney.
“She’s awesome. She’s going to be the player to remember in this league for years,” Lomasney said.
McKeen said the return of junior Ally Bettencourt, who has missed half the season with injuries, was key, and said the game was a “good team effort.”
“We haven’t had Ally the last 10 games and she makes a difference,” McKeen said. “She made some baskets tonight. Abby hasn’t scored a lot of points this year, but she’s been our facilitator. She is just an all-around great player who does it on both ends of the court. Lizzy Bettencourt did a great job and Sophia (Coburn) did a great job rebounding and shooting.”
In Woburn, Peabody faces a team that has eliminated Peabody four times in the last six years, the latest one last year in the Round of 32.
“We’re going to go in and give it our best shot,” McKeen said. “They lost a couple of players from last year, but they reload every year. We’ll be looking at some film of them, but they play in such a tough league, no question.”
“Our plan for Woburn is to give 150 percent and what happens, happens. Anything can happen in one game,” Lomasney said. “So, we’re going to go out there and give it our best and see what happens.”
