RallyNorth.net

Tue, Feb 05, 2008 07:00 PM @ Gloucester

Team	1	2	3	4	Final
Saugus	8	4	8	10	30
Gloucester	14	13	18	16	61

Gloucester's tight defense helps Fishermen clinch tourney berth

Wednesday, February, 06 By Richard Slate
Staff writer

A total team effort on both ends of the floor put the Gloucester girls basketball team back in the postseason after an absence of a year.

Nine different players scored as Gloucester also recorded 18 steals en route to a 61-30 win over visiting Saugus (2-14). With the win, the Fishermen (10-5, 8-4) clinched a tournament berth with four games still remaining in the regular season.

"We were thinking about this 10th win since last February (when last season ended)," admitted Gloucester head coach Jon Flanagan. "It's a good feeling, I told them that this was our goal from the beginning of the season and we've accomplished that. What we have to do now is set ourselves up to get the highest seed we can possibly get."

Coming off Friday's disappointing loss to Winthrop, Gloucester was looking to bounce back at home against the Lady Sachems.

The Fishermen offense started out slow against Saugus but woke up midway through the first quarter. The top notch defense though was on display all night as Gloucester consistently clogged the Saugus passing lanes and pulled down the defensive rebounds thus limiting the second-chance opportunities.

Freshman point guard Hannah Cain (game-high 18 points, 8 steals, 7 assists, 4 rebounds) had an outstanding all-around game in the win and only played in the first three quarters. Gloucester led 14-8 after the first quarter and 27-12 at the half. The Fishermen put the game out of reach in the third quarter, outscoring the Lady Sachems 18-8. With that, the night was over for Cain, junior forward Olivia Lufkin (7 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks), junior guard Lindsey Rogers (7 points, 3 rebounds, 3 steals), senior guard Jill Lukegord (2 points, 3 steals, 2 rebounds, 2 assists) and junior center Alicia Unis (2 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals).

For the entire fourth quarter, Gloucester's bench (Vanessa Saputo, Samantha Saputo, Rachael White, Alexandra Verga and Megan Fulford) got some quality time and responded by putting up 16 points while holding Saugus to 10. White was the leading scorer of the group with 11 points, nine rebounds and two blocks. Verga added eight points (including two 3-pointers) and Samantha Saputo notched four points. "Everybody works so hard in practice," noted Flanagan. "It's my responsibility to get those kids some meaningful minutes."

The captain of the team, Rogers, also cited her teammates work in the fourth quarter as one of the keys to the win. "The girls off the bench helped out a lot. They expanded the lead. We played better defense than we had lately and moved the ball more. We like to get a few passes off before we shoot."

Gloucester travels to Marblehead on Friday (who the Fishermen have already knocked off, 56-26 on December 18) before three tough games to close out the regular season: home vs. Swampscott next Tuesday, at Danvers next Friday then at Winthrop a week from Tuesday.

After qualifying her freshman year, Rogers and her teammates missed the tournament last season, making it that much more satisfying to get back this season. "It feels very exciting," exclaimed Rogers. "Not making it last year was the worst."