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Throw Pentucket out of the River Rival equation on the girls side and after another season of terrific action it has been hard to figure out the remaining three teams | Amesbury, Newburyport, and Triton.

Perhaps motivated by its last-second loss to Newburyport last Friday or the fact that it still needed that elusive 10th victory to qualify for the EMass. tournament, the Triton girls wasted no more time punching their ticket by routing Amesbury, 52-21.

What senior Bre Comeau said about her teammates after succumbing to a streaking North Andover basketball club spoke volumes, "I love them to death. I wouldn't want to play with anybody else."

This quote says it all about a basketball team that | despite a 4-7 record | has a unified and endearing approach to hard work and sportsmanship.

Taryn O'Connell tallied 18 points, 13 rebounds and three assists for the Royals (6-5). Julie Fehlmann added 16 points, seven rebounds and six assists. Haley Gisonno had 13 points, nine rebounds, and three steals. The Royals snapped a four-game losing streak.

Manchester Essex girls basketball player Lizzie Ball was in the zone last night and her team needed all of her career-high 20 points as the Hornets (4-3, 1-1) held off visiting Amesbury (2-4, 1-1) in a Cape Ann League game.

The high school basketball season isn't even half over yet, but the Gloucester girls basketball team has already equalled its success of last year.

The Fishermen picked up a 66-42 win over Amesbury last night to improve to 4-2 on the season. Gloucester finished with just a 4-14 record one year ago.

The Rockport girls basketball team will not be going into the holiday break the way they would've like to.

That's because the Vikings happened to catch Amesbury on a night when the Indians played near-perfect basketball en route to a dominating 61-18 victory last night.

NEWBURYPORT | No pep talk was needed last evening when Newburyport girls basketball coach Neil Reardon addressed his team prior to its showdown with rival Amesbury.

Two bitter defeats were fresh on the minds of his players.

Two teams that really struggled in their opening games, Triton and Amesbury, locked up for an entertaining, high-scoring affair last night, as the Indians beat the Vikings, 65-58.

Amesbury, which was thumped by Pentucket Tuesday, 57-19, looked as if it might get blown away again early with Triton jumping on the Indians 9-0 to start the game.

WEST NEWBURY | There will be no repeat of a Cinderella season for the Pentucket girls basketball team.

The Sachems won't slip under anybody's radar this season.

That's because the team that won the school's first Cape Ann League title and made a state tournament run to the TD Banknorth Garden last season returned the bulk of its core group — including All-CAL standouts Ashley Viselli and Kirsten Daamen, who are now sophomores.