RallyNorth.net

Rematch could have title implications for Hornets, Titans

Friday, February, 29 By Matt Langone
Sports editor

Rarely does a quarterfinal round game in the state basketball tournament have legit championship implications. But it would be fair to consider tomorrow's Division 4 North girls basketball quarterfinal between ninth-seeded Manchester Essex and No. 1 New Mission one of those rare exceptions. At least based on what happened last year.

The Hornets and the Titans were the last two teams standing in Division 4 North last winter and met at Salem State College on March 9. In an evenly-played contest that saw the lead change hands eight times in the second half, Manchester Essex fell to the eventual state champ New Mission, 68-62.

The Titans were also the top seed last year, entering the tourney with a 17-3 record out of the Boston City League, and not much has changed since then for the Roxbury school.

The record is a little more impressive this time around at 19-1 after a dominant 73-40 victory over No. 16 Northeast on Wednesday night, but the Titans were the favorite last year and probably are this year.

However, for Manchester Essex, a lot has changed over the past year for the better.

For starters, this isn't the same 6-14 Manchester Essex squad that crawled into the postseason last year as the No. 15 seed in a 16-team field. That team benefitted from a combination of terrific play and opponents taking them lightly, and rolled to victories by margins of 19 (Minuteman), 30 (Shawsheen) and 25 (Lynn Tech).

This year's version, racked up a very respectable record of 12-8 during the regular season in the ultra-competitive Cape Ann League. In Tuesday night's first round matchup, the Hornets handled eighth-seeded Lynn Tech on the road, 53-43. The victory continued Manchester Essex's streak of beating all of their tournament opponents | aside from New Mission | by double-figures over the past two years. More impressively, none of those wins came on the Hornets home floor.

Being a year older is also beneficial to this year's Hornets.

Lizzy Ball, Dani Ciccone, Jen Bishop and Jordan Biggar all saw significant minutes for Manchester Essex against New Mission last year. Ball, who was just an eighth-grader at the time, torched the Titans for a team-high 18 points while Bishop added 16.

Of those four, this year's go-to-player will almost undoubtedly be Ciccone. The senior center went for 14 points last year on New Mission's reasonably tall front line. Ciccone, who stands close to 6-feet, will be easily the tallest player on the court tomorrow and will present a handful for the Titans, whose tallest player now is just 5-foot-7.

Of course, the Hornets will also have their work cut out for them on defense.

New Mission is arguably the quickest team in Division 4 led by junior guard Bianca Flores, who netted 17 points and three 3-pointers last year against Manchester Essex.

Conventional wisdom would say that the winner of tomorrow's showdown will become a logical pick to win the North. But March and tourney time is a recipe for crazy things to happen.