RallyNorth.net

Saamen, Sachems focus in for title

Sunday, December, 30 By Dave Dyer
Staff writer

HAVERHILL | The Pentucket girls basketball team may need to adopt a new motto.

"The bigger the game, the better we play."

Similar to its run in the Division 3 state tournament last season, that again seemed to be the case last night in the championship game of the Haverhill Coca-Cola Christmas Hoop Classic as the Sachems smothered previously unbeaten Swampscott, 51-35.

Swampscott (6-1), which fell to Pentucket in the Division 3 North finals last season, was again no match for the Sachems (7-0), and particularly 6-foot-3 junior center Kirsten Daamen, who was named the tournament MVP.

Daamen, who had 15 points and 20 rebounds in the North semifinals against the Big Blue, totally disrupted Swampscott's offense on her way to finishing with a tidy triple double of 14 points, 11 rebounds and 10 blocked shots. She also altered countless shots, which helps explains Swampscott's 26 percent shooting (13 of 49).

"She's just a very good player and a real tough matchup for us," said Swampscott coach Jack Hughes. "We don't play against anyone else like that. We're a team that likes to drive to the basket and she stops that. We're used to controlling the paint, and she doesn't allow that."

Daamen admitted that she was particularly focused against the Big Blue.

"I think I do play better against the better teams and we wanted to feel like we still have our D3 title with us," said Daamen.

Swampscott stars Tara Nimkar and Allie Beaulieu were held to just nine and seven points respectively, affected not only by Daamen's presence but also by fine team defense. All-tourney selection Ashley Viselli, who had 14 points of her own, contained Nimkar and Holly Jakobsons and Lyndsay Beaton combined to shut down Beaulieu.

"Holding those two to single digits is impressive," said Pentucket coach John McNamara. "Kirsten allows us to do some things (defensively) that we wouldn't ordinarily do, and we've been playing good team defense."

The Sachems also played their best offensive game of the tournament, starting in the first quarter when they jumped to a 17-7 lead. Daamen had 10 points in the period and Erin McNamara had four.

Swampscott opened the second quarter with eight straight points, cutting the lead to 17-15 but, with Viselli on the bench with two fouls, sophomore reserve Emily Lane helped preserve the lead with five straight points.

Ahead 24-19 at halftime and 32-26 after three periods, Pentucket pulled away in the final frame with an impressive 19-point performance. Viselli had seven points in the period, McNamara four and Daamen six.

Andrea Attenesio, who helped Pentucket control the boards, finished with 10 points and six rebounds and both McNamara (8 points) and Viselli helped out with their share of rebounds.

"We can play that way," said McNamara. "That's the best team we've played, so I'd have to say this is the best game we've played.

"We didn't talk about winning this. We just knew there would be good teams and we wanted to play well. We did that."

The only Swampscott player who enjoyed any success was sophomore guard Kara Gilberg, who finished with 12 points.