NORTH ADAMS -- The Drury girls' basketball team had an answer for everything Hoosac Valley tossed its way Monday night.
The Hurricanes hit three 3-pointers to start the game, but the Blue Devils responded to every shot. Drury scored on every possession following a Hurricane trey in the opening quarter. Then Drury's defense kicked it up a notch and shut down the Hurricanes, propelling them to a 59-38 victory.
"They were draining [3-pointers] to start, that's for sure," Drury senior Shannon Garvey said. "We stepped up and stopped them in the end."
After a torrid start, the Hurricanes offense fell silent. Jen Gale hit a 3-pointer with 4 minutes, 19 seconds left to play in the first quarter. The bucket gave Hoosac a 9-6 lead and it was the final lead they would see.
Drury's defense took over. The offense also picked up.
The Blue Devils went on a 27-4 run to close out the half. Hoosac's only points of the second quarter came on another Gale 3-pointer.
"Coach always says defense is our main focus," Drury's Emily Moulton said. "We realized it after they hit a couple of big shots. We needed to step it up and get fired up. That's exactly what we did."
Not only was the Drury defense solid, but the offense was very balanced. Eight Blue Devils factored into the scoring, and three
It wasn't the offensive or defensive performance the Hurricanes had hoped for.
"We didn't play any defense," Hoosac coach Ron Wojcik said. "You can't give up 59 points in a game like this.
"We've been giving up 28 points a game. To give up 59 tonight, that is disgusting."
The Blue Devils started the second half in similar fashion. They went on a 9-1 run to open the third and put the game out of reach.
Hoosac continued to put up shots from outside the arch, adding four 3-pointers in the second half, but scored just three field goals from inside the 3-point line.
"You can't win games on the perimeter," Wojcik said. "And you can't win games with no defense. We weren't aggressive enough on the inside, at either side of the court."
Hoosac's Amber Lesure and Maddie Ryan each put up 11 points to lead the team. But, the Hurricanes were out-rebounded at both ends of the floor.
Garvey had eight to lead Drury, while Racette, Tatro, Olivia Carlson and Kasha Wissman each had three or more.
"We worked really hard on our defense to box out and really set our feet," Moulton said. "We all just came out ready to play. There wasn't one person that wasn't going to come out and play hard."
Tatro may have had 11 points, but that wasn't the most valuable part of her game Monday. She added nine assists to lead the balanced attack. Danielle Racette was also for more valuable than her scoring line indicates.
Hoosac was able to limit the damage Racette did in the scoring column, but she found a way to factor in. She only scored five points, but had eight assists. She also contributed four steals and four rebounds.
"Danielle and Ali, they really give us great assists and everyone can score from their passes," Garvey said. "It's really all them."
It's exactly what coach John Franzoni is looking for from his senior captains.
"If you want to make it hard for [Danielle] to shoot, she's going to find the open player," Franzoni said. "That's why she's a great player. She makes her teammates around her even better because she is very unselfish. If you want to pressure us and her, she's going to find some open court with some players where they can get the ball and score."
While Wojcik was less than pleased with his team's defensive effort, Franzoni enjoyed what he saw from his Blue Devils. Only four Hurricanes scored from the floor, while both Meg Rodowicz and Caroline Tomkowicz scored their only point from the foul line.
"We know that not many teams will out-defend us," Franzoni said. "That's kind of what we rest our laurels on. Defense is going to help us extend our season.
"We also have some kids that can shoot. I think we're more balanced offensively this year. We proved that tonight."
To reach Sam Monroe, email
smonroe@thetranscript.com.
On Twitter: @NAT_DigitalSam
Font Resize
