BOSTON – A stout protection and a dominant center of the sport led Cathedral to a convincing ladies basketball win at dwelling in opposition to Catholic Central League rival St. Mary’s of Lynn on Friday evening.
A 17-2 run to finish the second into the beginning of the third turned a deficit right into a 13-point lead because the No. 2 Panthers by no means appeared again in opposition to the top-ranked Spartans in a 65-46 victory.
“It’s a battle of attrition,” mentioned Panthers’ coach Clinton Lassiter. “We run, run, run. We’ve had a lot of kids out sick this week, so players are more gassed than normal. We caused havoc and we just tried to crush it. Bring out their tendencies and take them away.”
During that run, junior Hijjah Allen-Paisley netted 10 of her 15 factors, with a pair of steals and a triple to go from down 22-20 to up 37-24 early within the third.
The Cathedral (6-1) protection got here up with 26 turnovers all through the competition that led to loads of alternatives for the offense as sophomore Keyona Raines got here up with 5 of the crew’s 15 steals.
“For the team, it feels good to know that we are playing good defense as a team,” Raines mentioned about capitalizing on the turnovers on the offensive aspect. “When we’re aggressive, that’s easier for us to actually get more points because it’s mostly about defense.”
Raines completed with a game-high 19 factors as nicely.
For St. Mary’s (8-1), junior Reese Matela scored a game-high 22 factors as Cathedral did a terrific job protecting Bella Owumi (two factors) all through the competition.
“(St. Mary’s) is built off of (Owumi), who is an amazing, amazing player, so if you can disrupt their point guard, which is going to disrupt the offense,” Lassiter mentioned about having the ability to shut her down. “Everything’s out of sync (on offense) and again lean on their tendencies (to shut down).”
Cathedral got here out robust within the first and led 10-5 earlier than St. Mary’s made it a 15-11 contest after one. The groups traded leads and tied early within the second earlier than the Panthers’ run to go up by 30-24 on the half.
After the 7-0 run to start out the third, Cathedral bought up as many as 15 earlier than St. Mary’s ended the third on a 10-4 run to make it a 46-37 deficit.
In the fourth the Spartans made it a seven-point recreation a pair instances, however a 14-2 run for Cathedral put the sport away late.
Source: www.bostonherald.com