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Matchups hurt Lancers in the long run

Thursday, March, 06 By Ryan Lambert
Staff writer

Londonderry hung in for a while, but in the end, Manchester Central's superstar players took over the game.

The third-seeded Lancers played a strong first half before standout guard Christiana Bakolas and senior forward Alicia Doucet combined for 17 second-half points as second-seeded Central cruised to a 56-39 win in the Class L semifinals before 718 fans.

Both teams came out firing, as they combined to make their first six shots. The pace was frantic, but the Little Green began to pull away thanks to Londonderry turnovers and fouls. Midway through the first quarter, Central had opened a 12-6 lead, but freshman Savanna Butterfield, recently named MVP of the state JV tournament (which Londonderry won), came in and sank a pair of layups 37 seconds apart to cut the lead to two.

"It's pretty cool," said Butterfield of being able to give her team a boost. "They're really good at supporting me, no matter if you're losing or winning. I feel good any time I'm playing because they're always so supportive (of my game)."

In the second quarter, Londonderry forced Bakolas and Doucet to shoot from the outside. Unfortunately, they still combined for 13 points in the quarter.

"We tried to deny Doucet as much as possible," said head coach John Fagula, whose input was limited due to his recent health scare. "The first half she didn't really see the ball all that much. She got frustrated and came out in the second half and tried to do all that takeover stuff. We were fortunate that they didn't really shoot the ball that well in the first half. It was all perimeter shooting and they weren't making many shots."

It was Callie King who answered the Little Green’s onslaught. King scored six points for the Lancers on two plays. The first was a 3-pointer that gave Londonderry its first points in 3:43, and the second was a beautiful traditional three-point play that leveled the score at 18 with 2:45 left.

Londonderry headed to the locker room down 26-24, but the game began to slip away in the third quarter.

The Lancers were outscored 12-3 in the period as Londonderry turned the ball over five times.

"We were getting beat physically, especially on silly things," said Fagula. "We gave up probably 10 points on inbound plays and we didn't communicate with each other. That's part of the problem with younger groups, especially post players. They don't communicate well and react after the fact instead of before."

Central put the game away with an 18-point fourth. Londonderry was powerless to stop Bakolas, who typically drove the lane uncontested and scored eight of her 12 points in the final quarter. Londonderry’s only late highlight was Alayna Grabowski and Maureen Hurley’s 3-pointers inside of a minute to go.

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