NORTH ADAMS -- Drury girls' basketball coach John Franzoni took possibly the most important timeout of the young season for the Blue Devils early in the third quarter when Wahconah took its first lead of the game.
The Blue Devils didn't allow another basket from the floor and went on an 11-0 run to take the lead back and get an important North Division victory, 35-23 on Friday night.
"We definitely dug in defensively," senior Danielle Racette said. "I mean they stayed at 20 points for a while and they only scored five points after that [timeout]."
Emily Jordan hit a 3-pointer late in the second quarter for Wahconah and the Warriors carried that momentum into the second half. Two quick foul shots from Maddie Sprague and a field goal from Shannon Lussier gave Wahconah a 19-18 lead.
Franzoni was unimpressed with his team's early effort and spent an early timeout to correct it.
"On the first two possessions [of the second half] we just didn't come out and play hard," Franzoni said. "They were being more aggressive and we said that was unacceptable, especially on our home court, to have them be more aggressive and push us around.
"I think the kids took it to heart, too. They didn't score another basket for the rest of the game."
Early foul trouble had forced Ali Tatro out of the game and held her to zero first-half points. She came in after the timeout and started the run for the Blue Devils.
"Everything starts to happen for us when all of us are working together," Tatro said. "Danielle was able to feed me the ball and everyone else moved around and got open. It was a really good team effort for us."
Tatro scored 11 of her team's 17 points in the second half. She continued to struggle from the free-throw line, going just one for eight. But she hit four shots from the floor in the fourth quarter and helped on the glass, brining in three rebounds in the fourth quarter alone.
"It comes down to second-half basketball," Wahconah coach June Blake said. "We were held without a basket in the fourth quarter. I think all our points were free throws. [Eight] points in the second, that's just not going to get it done.
"I thought we did a decent job defensively to hold them to 35 points. We just didn't execute offensively when we needed to."
The Warriors held Racette to just 13 points -- enough for the game high. They also kept Shannon Garvey off the board until the fourth quarter.
Gabby Lavinio had a hot start for the Warriors, scoring six points in the first quarter. Those would be the only points she would get in the game, however.
"Defensively, I'm very proud of our kids," Franzoni said. "Wahconah has scored over 50 points in the last two games, and we held them to 23. That's a great effort by our kids."
Rebounding played a major role in the defensive effort. With both Tatro and Garvey forced to the bench with early foul trouble, Emily Moulton and freshman Olivia Carlson were forced to play more minutes. Moulton finished the game with 14 rebounds and recorded five blocks for the Blue Devils. She also added four points. Carlson chipped in four points and pulled down six rebounds for her team.
"The first four minutes we have two of our captains with two fouls," Franzoni said. "It's just a good sign of our depth. Olivia had some great minutes and Amber [Iacuessa] played great in the first and second half. She really gave us a great lift off the bench.
"Emily really stepped up in the paint, as well. She had a really good game for us."
To reach Sam Monroe, email
smonroe@thetranscript.com.
On Twitter: @NAT_DigitalSam
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