WILLIAMSTOWN -- When a team struggles to score points, the defense needs to keep that team in the game.
That's exactly what the Drury girls' basketball team was able to do Thursday night against Mount Greylock, rolling to a 57-34 victory.
Both teams struggled to score points in the first quarter. Drury's defense and rebounding ability kept it afloat until the offense could get going.
Greylock's offense wasn't able to start clicking until late in the fourth quarter, and by that time it was too late.
"We were 5 for 28 [shooting] in the first quarter, that can't happen," Drury's Danielle Racette said. "We missed a lot of easy shots, but in the second half we were able to pick it up."
Racette was the only Blue Devil to hit more than one shot in the first quarter. She scored four of her game-high 18 points. Drury managed just 11 points in the first quarter as a team. But the defense held Greylock to just five points.
The best offensive quarter for the Blue Devils came in the third, when they outscored Greylock 19-7.
The Mounties managed to score in the double digits only once -- the fourth quarter. Lucy Barrett has been averaging over 14 points per game; she scored 13 to lead the Mounties.
"We took a little while to get going," Drury coach John Franzoni said. "When your defense plays the way our defense does, it gives you a chance to go through rough patches on offense."
If one Drury
It's the opposite for the Mounties. Barrett put in 13 points and Mackenzie Flynn added eight. But the rest of the Mounties continued to struggle for much of the night. Cheyanne Alcombright did contribute five points, all in the fourth quarter. Arianna Walden was out of the lineup. The starting point guard has been sidelined with pneumonia for about a week. She returned to the bench Thursday, but did not see any playing time.
"[Drury] has a lot of different weapons out there," Greylock coach Paul Barrett said. "We can't go through offensive droughts like we did. They continually put up points."
The longest drought of the night for the Mounties came to start the third quarter. Greylock was held scoreless until Flynn hit a foul shot four minutes in.
Drury then clamped down again and held the Mounties off the board until Barrett was able to complete a 3-point play with just over two minutes to play in the quarter.
"We work a lot in practice on our defense," Benoit said. "Our defense has always been our main focus. Just working really hard at practice and bringing that into the games."
It's the second straight game Drury has held an opponent under 40 points. The Blue Devils accomplished the feat on Monday against Hoosac Valley.
"We had a great game against Hoosac and we wanted to come out as strong as we did then and just play well," Benoit said.
The Blue Devils dominated the boards in the contest. Ali Tatro led the way for Drury collecting nine rebounds. Moulton scooped up seven, while Iacuessa collected six rebounds off the bench.
"They're relentless on the boards," Barrett said. "They have the size on us and lot of shots were going up. They were getting a lot of extra possessions off their missed shots."
It's not all bad for the Mounties, however. The young team is starting to see improvements from game to game.
Margot Besnard had eight rebounds to lead Greylock.
"We had a few bright spots," Barrett said. "I thought we were contesting decently. I thought we were rebounding better. We know that's a spot that needs improvement. There are bright spots."
To reach Sam Monroe, email
smonroe@thetranscript.com.
On Twitter: @NAT_DigitalSam
Font Resize
