RallyNorth.net

Fri, Feb 29, 2008 07:00 PM @ Masconomet

Team	1	2	3	4	Final
Playoff Game Division 2 North - Quarter Finals
Tewksbury	13	12	19	21	65
Masconomet	18	15	19	16	68

Masco 'Burns' Tewksbury in tight battle

Friday, February, 29 By Matt Jenkins
Staff writer

TOPSFIELD | Even in defeat, Tewksbury girls basketball coach Pat McAndrews was thinking like a hoop fan.

Just seconds after fighting back the tears that follow a season-ending loss, a grin crept onto McAndrews' face when asked about Masconomet point guard Annie Burns.

Burns had a huge second half, knocking down four 3-pointers | each one more pressure-packed than the one before | as the top-seeded Chieftains escaped disaster with a 68-65 win over the Redmen in a Division 2 North quarterfinal game. Masconomet (20-1) moves on to play fourth-seeded Lincoln-Sudbury in the semifinals (time and place TBA).

"We had no answer for (Burns)," McAndrews said with the giggle of a man who had just encountered greatness. "That was clutch shooting, man."

With Masconomet stars Caroline Stewart and Jamie White each spending significant minutes on the bench with four fouls apiece, Burns took it upon herself to keep the hosts ahead.

Her first 3-pointer stopped a seven-point run by Tewksbury early in the third quarter. Then, she added another three after the Redmen had cut the deficit to two, and she closed out the quarter with a triple that pushed the lead to 52-44. Tewksbury had no intentions of giving in, however, and when it took a 60-59 lead with 3:36 to play, Burns drilled a trey from the left wing to put Masco back on top.

The visiting Redmen would never lead again.

"I pulled her aside during one of the timeouts and said, 'Look at the situation. Look who's not on the floor with us right now. You need to step up,'" Masco coach Bob Romeo said of his talk with Burns. "She was amazing. She won't give in. In the huddle she said, 'It's not happening. We're not giving this one away here.'"

The Redmen, a tournament-tested group battling the likes of Central Catholic, Lowell, and Andover in the regular season of the Merrimack Valley Conference, did everything they could to steal an upset.

A Krissy DiBenedetto (career-high 19 points) 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter vaulted Masco to a 55-46 advantage, but Tewksbury responded with a 14-4 spurt. Danielle DePierro (team-high 16 points) hit her only three of the night to give the Redmen their first lead (60-59) since it was 9-8 a little over four minutes in.

"Nothing fazes these kids | and they obviously weren't fazed tonight," Romeo said about Tewksbury. "We took a couple of big leads, but they didn't go away."

Tewksbury made a concerted effort to get to the basket. The plan worked well as it got the Boston University-bound Stewart into foul trouble.

She finished with eight points and six rebounds and fouled out with 30 seconds to play.

"We didn't try to devise anything. We played like who we are," McAndrews said. "They have a lot of respect for the Stewart kid. Everybody knows about Stewart, but we didn't make a big deal about it. We just wanted to come in and do our thing."

The difficult opening game may have left many Masco fans with sore fingernails, but there was a lesson in it for the Chieftains.

"I think this makes us tougher as a whole," Burns said. "We all want to stay focused and tough. I think it will help us in the long run."

Bench players Carly Kiernan and Kim Talbot played important roles in the second half. Each had tie-breaking baskets down the stretch.

"We know that we can depend on them if anything else happens," Stewart said. "We learned how to depend on each other. Krissy hit some key shots, Annie hit some key shots, and Carly made a really big play. Everyone contributed."

Masco will need a similar contribution from the bench, and a better overall performance if it wants to advance to the North final.

Lincoln-Sudbury and Masco have developed an interesting postseason rivalry the past few years.

"It will be the third straight year where the winner will goes to Tsongas," Romeo said. "We know them well; they know us well."