RallyNorth.net

PMA run stopped in semis

Tuesday, March, 02 By Jeff Hamrick

MALDEN — After reaching the Division 4 North semifinals, Presentation of Mary Academy saw its season crashing to a halt before halftime.

Unable to successfully navigate the Manchester-Essex press, the fifth-seeded Panthers trailed by 17 points at intermission before dropping a 50-32 decision to the 16th-seeded Hornets last night at Malden High School.
“We knew (the press) was coming,” first-year PMA coach Joe DeBlois said. “We reverted to our old ways. I’m not exactly sure what happened, but we just didn’t do what we’ve been doing the last few games.”

Manchester (12-12) ran away from the Panthers (17-6) with a 19-2 run over an 8-minute span to open a 23-6 advantage with 38 seconds left in the second quarter. Seven different Hornets combined for 11 first-half field goals — nine more than PMA. The Panthers converted only two of their 17 field-goal attempts and committed 16 turnovers in the opening half.

“We definitely picked it up in the second quarter,” said Dubois, whose Panthers won their second straight Commonwealth Conference Small title. “We started of slower than we would have liked. But we generate on defense. Our offense comes when we’re being real aggressive with our defense and getting traps. We look to push and get lay ups off that.”

Trailing 25-8 at intermission, DeBlois tried to keep things simple in his halftime talk.

“I just told them to hang in there,” DeBlois said of his halftime speech. “We told them to play 2-minute games. I said ‘if you can beat them every 2 minutes you can find yourselves back in the game. Don’t try to come back on one shot, Play 2-minute games, and we’ll take it from there.’ "

Baskets by senior Kate St. Peter, who finished with 9 points, and junior Danielle Silva, who scored a team-high 10, cut the Panthers’ deficit to 13, but they would get no closer. Lizzy Ball, who finished with a game-high 20 points, sparked a 12-0 run as Manchester built its biggest lead at 37-12 with 2:44 left in third.

Despite entering the tournament with an 8-12 mark, Manchester advances to the District 4 final against sixth-seeded Fenway on Saturday at Emmanuel College. During the regular season, the Hornets, a Cape Ann League member, played six opponents who reached the quarterfinals or better in Divisions 1, 2 and 3. In their four tournament victories, the Hornets have outscored their opponents by an average margin of 20.7 points.

“We play such a tough schedule,” Manchester coach Lauren DuBois said. “We battle all season, and we’re always in tight games or we’re coming from behind. When we get into the tournament, we feel we’re ready for it. We’ve got experience in past tournaments, and we’re ready to play.”