RallyNorth.net

Hornets do the little things to pick up road win

Thursday, January, 31 By Richard Slate
Staff writer

The Manchester Essex girls basketball team used strong team defense, rebounding, free throw shooting and balanced scoring | four key ingredients come tournament time | to pick up a 41-35 win at Lynnfield.

Playing on back-to-back nights is rare in high school athletics yet that was the challenge facing the Hornets (8-7), who had defeated Hamilton-Wenham (49-30) the night before. Even though Lynnfield is in the Cape Ann League, this one counted as a non-league game for some reason. The teams met on January 15 in Manchester with the Hornets pulling out a 35-27 win.

"We started off slow because of the game last night," said Manchester Essex head coach Lauren Dubois. "I think we were tired in the first half. We didn't come out with the energy that we usually do. The third quarter was the difference as we pulled ahead and maintained that lead for the rest of the game."

Manchester Essex was led offensively by senior center Dani Ciccone (11 points, 11 rebounds), junior point guard Lee Stroman (10 points, seven rebounds, two steals) and freshman shooting guard Lizzy Ball (10 points, four rebounds, two steals).

The Hornets led 9-5 after the first quarter as both teams had trouble putting the ball in the net. The second quarter was even sloppier as the Pioneers traded turnovers with the Hornets. Each team managed just five points in the frame as Lynnfield started to double-team Ciccone down low.

Despite the offensive struggles, Manchester Essex junior forward Jordan Biggar (four points, eight rebounds) gave her team a big lift off the bench when Ciccone got in foul trouble in the first half.

Holding the slimmest of leads at the half (14-13), the Hornets came out with a 11-0 run to start the second half. Manchester Essex used a suffocating full-court press to put the clamps on Lynnfield. The Hornets won the quarter 18-6 to put the game out of reach.

Lynnfield junior forward Alison Newell (13 points, seven rebounds) tried her best to keep her team in the game but Manchester Essex's lead was too large. The Pioneers cut it to as low as seven points but no closer.

For the game, the Hornets dominated the glass, outrebounding the Pioneers 46-30. They also owned the free throw line (21 of 30) while Lynnfield struggled there (9 of 20). Stroman made eight of her 10 free throws.

"We tried to keep our composure when they started to erase our lead," Dubois noted, "and use the time to our advantage. We've had good defense all season, I'm very pleased with that. We're getting our offense too these days. Everybody did a nice job."

North Andover comes to Manchester Essex on Friday night for a Cape Ann League game.