Mashpee Girls Give Cohasset All They Can Handle

By: Rich Maclone
Published: 02/15/13

 Senior Night proved to be a quality evening for the Mashpee High School girls’ basketball team. While the Falcons were unable to improve on their lackluster record, the team gave one of its better overall efforts of the season as they played hard for 32 minutes and made Cohasset work hard to the final buzzer.

The contest marked the final time that the Lady Falcons’ three seniors will play for their school at the Bock Gymnasium. A pregame ceremony was held to honor the outgoing trio of Yneishka Medina, Jessica Lopes and Marlene Gumbert.
In the end, the Lady Skippers, one of the top teams in the South Shore League, proved to be too much for Mashpee to handle as they won by a 48-31 score. Still, Mashpee (1-16) didn’t make it easy as the Skippers battled to get closer to qualification for the state tournament. Mashpee trailed by just six at the end of the first quarter, and rallied late in the game to make things somewhat interesting.

The difference in the game was the effectiveness of the Cohasset pressure defense. CHS rolled out a couple of different combinations of pressure, but mostly used a 2-2-1 zone look that trapped near the time line to force a multitude of miscues. Mashpee turned the ball over 35 times in the game, with a dozen in both the first and third quarters.

Foul trouble for starting point guard Morgen Morris hindered the Lady Falcons greatly early in the game. Without their primary ball handler on the court, the Cohasset pressure wreaked havoc as MHS struggled to get the ball into the front court over the first six-plus minutes of the game. Once the Lady Falcons got more comfortable, they started to take better care of the basketball. Cohasset jumped out to a 10-0 lead to start the game, but a 3-pointer by Raegan Silvia (13 points, 11 rebounds) and a couple of free throws by Gumbert (6 points, 7 rebounds) cut that in half. Cohasset added a free throw before the end of the quarter to lead by six.

In the second quarter, the Skippers made the lead comfortable. With Kristen Alexander (20 points) Emily Rosano (12 points) seizing control of the contest, Cohasset used its running game to bust the contest open. After a shot by Sarah Whipper from the lane got the Falcons to within four points early in the second, Cohasset had an 8-0 run in the middle of the quarter to get their advantage to a comfortable stage. A put-back and a pair of free throws by Rosano were followed by a stick-back by Alexander and then a steal and fast-break bucket by Rosano and in a span of two minutes the Cohasset lead went from four points to 12. CHS led by 11 at the break, 24-13.

Cohasset’s press was unleashed in the third quarter again, and it did the trick. Mashpee was held to just three free throws, and no field goals, in the third quarter. With their press resulting in 12 takeaways during the eight-minute period, Cohasset jumped out to a 20-point lead by the end of the stanza, taking a 36-16 lead into the fourth.The Skippers continued to play at a high tempo over the first four minutes of the fourth quarter, building their lead to as many 25 points.
Mashpee got hot late in the game and had some fun on the court. With Cohasset playing a 3-2 zone defense, the Falcons showed that they could score better when given time to run their sets, and did just that. A drive by Silvia began a 10-0 run for the Lady Falcons that saw them make the final score much more respectable. Gumbert followed with a nice left-handed lay-up and then Silvia jacked a 3-pointer with 2:15 left in the game, bringing the home crowd to its feet. Lopes (4 points) added the last home basket of her career on the next trip to get the team within 16.

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