Miller & Geary Lead Falmouth To Victory In Melrose Tournament

By: Rich Maclone
Published: 12/28/12

 Talk about two different halves.

Last night in Melrose, in the first round of the Melrose Holiday Classic, the Falmouth and Burlington girls’ basketball teams combined for just 28 points, with each club hitting for 14. After 16 minutes of frustrating hoops, the second half proved to be much more entertaining and the Clippers had the most fun, winning their fourth in a row as they took a 46-41 decision.

A big reason that FHS more than doubled its first half output in the second half was the play of freshman Taylor Miller. The Clippers’ center was mired in foul trouble from the start of the first quarter and was unable to put in more than a few minutes before halftime. During that stretch she was held scoreless.

In the second half Miller was one of the best players on the court. The rookie scored more points in the second half than her team did in the first as she hit for a career-high 17, with six rebounds, to lead FHS past the Lady Red Devils.

Junior guard Grace Geary had another big game for the Clippers. Returning from a thumb injury that had kept her out of the team’s previous game, an easy win over Dennis-Yarmouth, Geary dominated the court as she hit for 13 points, with eight steals and eight assists.

Falmouth took the game over in the fourth quarter. Down one point at the end of three, 28-27, the continuous use of Miller down low overpowered Burlington and put Falmouth ahead to stay. Burlington kept it close, but Tommi Gans (11 points) knocked in a huge 3-point bucket with 1:15 left in the game that extended the Clippers lead to six points, 42-36. Burlington closed to within three, and had a chance to tie it up in the final seconds as they had control of the ball with just under 10 seconds left to go in the game.
Coming out of a timeout, the Devils tried to work the ball up the court, but threw it away. FHS then inbounded to Geary, who went to the line and sewed things up by draining a pair of free throws to finish off their foes.

“I thought we played well in the second half. We missed a lot of easy shots early in the game, a lot of lay-ups. We probably should have been up like 10 at the half, but we weren’t. In the second half we did a better job of finishing and played our game,” Head Coach Bob Buscher said.

FHS advances to today’s tournament championship game back in Melrose at 7 PM this evening. The Clippers will square off against Tewksbury. The Lady Redmen handled the host team by a 39-32 score in the second game of the evening.

Leave a Reply

In order to comment you need to be logged in.