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Sachems pound Guertin

Pentucket’s whirlwind defensive effort caught Bishop Guertin off-guard, unprepared, and totally crushed.

In the opening minute, a pair of 3’s from Ashley Viselli and another from Erin McNamara, set up by their own steals, gave the Sachems a lightning-fast 9-0 lead. And in retrospect, Ashley Viselli’s foul line jumper off a fine pass from freshman Nicole Viselli gave the Sachems a 21-4 advantage and all the points they would need to win after just over four minutes of action.

Eight Sachems had steals on the night led by six by Ashley Viselli (game-high 18 points) and five more from McNamara (10 points) as Guertin suffered 25 turnovers.

And as head coach John McNamara slowly eased off the gas pedal, all 15 Pentucket players dressed saw action before halftime, with even the bench strength stretching the advantage to a high of 43 points (54-11) with 4 1/2 minutes left to play.

"We value defense,” John McNamara explained. “We played it with a lot of passion and intensity. And when you’re on the other end of it like Guertin was, it multiplies and the game becomes too fast.

"To their credit, they had a couple of freshmen in key positions we were able to work on, and they’re good players that’ll get better as the year goes on.”

Tri-captain Kristi Purington led the Cardinals with seven points.