RallyNorth.net

Fri, Jan 11, 2013 07:00 PM @ Central Catholic

Team	1	2	3	4	Final
Billerica	11	14	15	17	57
Central Catholic	17	16	10	12	55

Billerica rally knocks off Raiders

Friday, January, 11 By Jeff Hamrick

LAWRENCE – Things were going so well for the Central Catholic girls last night that coach Sue Downer needed a mere 2 minutes for her halftime talk.

The situation, however, turned much more serious after intermission.

In a matchup between consensus top 10 teams visiting Billerica rebounded from a nine-point deficit with fewer than 5 minutes remaining and eked out a 57-55 victory over the Raiders.

The Indians (6-1 overall, 6-0 MVC) scored seven of the game’s final nine points. A put back by Shannon Hayes with 17 seconds left put Billerica up 56-55, its first lead since Central jumped ahead 7-6 early in the first. After a Casey McLaughlin miss, the Indians capped the scoring with a Brittany Lomanno free throw with 2.5 seconds remaining.

“When you’re playing a real good team, I don’t know if you ever feel 100 percent confident,” Downer said. “I didn’t do anything differently at halftime that I normally do, but the bottom line is we gave up way too many second chances tonight and that’s what killed us.

“It was two good teams playing, but I’d like to think we play (the Indians) multiple times, we’re going to win most times but it’s going to be a battle.”

Billerica’s rally negated a monster final stanza by McLaughlin, who finished with a game-high 23 points and 15 rebounds. The senior scored 10 of the Raiders’ 12 fourth-quarter points while pulling down five rebounds, blocking three of her four shots and making a steal.

“She’s very determined this season,” Downer said of her captain. “She does everything she can to win, and she’s truly upset in (the postgame locker room) and emotional with the loss. I can’t say enough about how hard she works and the leadership she gives us.”

Caitlin Dell’Orfano helped the Central cause in the first half by scoring all 11 of her points while Amanda Williams and Courtney Walsh each put up six of their eight.

“It’s great for us,” said Billerica coach Chris Doneski, whose squad won both regular-season games against Central last year before the Raiders knocked the Indians out of the North sectionals with a first-round victory. “We had a great season last year and (Central) came in and did a number on us in the tournament. We weren’t thinking about payback we just wanted to come out and play a good game against a good team.”

The Raiders dropped to 7-2 overall and 5-1 conference. Central’s only other loss was to North Andover, which used a Megan Collins layup with 1 second left for a 45-44 victory in the Christmas tournament championship.