Basketball: Mashpee Ladies Avenge Loss To South Shore Christian

By: Rich Maclone
Published: 02/18/11

To see the Mashpee High School girls’ basketball team play is to witness just how far they’ve come over the past year. Their overall increase in skill and toughness was on display in Weymouth on Wednesday afternoon as the Lady Falcons rallied from behind to score a 37-35 win over South Shore Christian Academy.

With the win Mashpee finished the regular season at 10-8 overall. The team has qualified for the MIAA Division IV state tournament and has more than doubled its win total from a year ago.

The game with SSCA was the second of a home-and-home series. The first meeting saw the Lady Warriors get 32 points from forward Leah Perera as they won at the Bock Gymnasium by a 52-48 score.

In the rematch the Lady Falcons locked down on defense and that made all the difference. The squad limited Perera to just 16 this time around and kept her from killing them at the foul line, which she did in the opener when she converted 18 of 24 shots.

Coach Naomi Terceira said that the determination on the defensive end was what made all the difference the second time out against South Shore. “We needed to play better defense. We were so hyped the last time out that we just couldn’t settle and there were too many quick fouls, and then she earned them, she went 18 of 24 at the line last time. The girls came to the conclusion that playing defense is more than just trying to block shots, and that really helped us settle down our game.”

Mashpee’s defense was all the difference at crunch time. A basket by South Shore’s Lindsay Bonheur with 3:01 to play put her team ahead, 35-33. That basket should not have been allowed by the referees since the SSCA forward clearly traveled before putting it up, but the referees missed the call and allowed it.

After that, though, South Shore did not score again. MHS came up with five steals and four defensive stands in the last three minutes of the game to shut out the home team during that stretch.

Mashpee’s offense hardly was hitting on all cylinders, but they were able to come back and score enough points to win in the end. With 1:31 left in the game Natasha Andrade (six points) was in the clear after a steal and lead pass by Morgen Morris. Andrade was fouled on her way up to the basket and hit the first of two free throws to pull MHS within a point.

After a missed shot by the Lady Warriors, with a little more than a minute left, Mashpee got the ball but turned it over. The Lady Falcons made up for that miscue by getting another stop. Katie Costa then fed the ball into Brecia Douglas (six points) for a lay-up to put the Falcons ahead, 36-35, with 41 seconds left.

A steal by Douglas with 34 seconds to go should have all but wrapped the game up, but the Lady Falcons gave it right back. With South Shore attacking the offensive end, Andrade made a pretty tip steal that landed in the hands of Morris who got it back to Andrade. The senior forward was fouled with 7.1 seconds to play and went to the line with a chance to make it a three-point game. Andrade wasn’t able to do that, but she did hit one freebie to make it 37-35.

Mashpee then held off South Shore in the closing seconds, despite a very slow trigger finger on the clock by the home team’s scoreboard operator on the final possession. South Shore had the ball near midcourt with 2.5 seconds left to play for an inbound play. The ball was put into Perera who had to pass it off. The clock did not start until the ball was in the hands of Katelyn Sprague, but Costa swept in and stole the ball away and ran off the last seconds to finish off the win for the Lady Falcons.

“The girls worked very hard; I have to give them credit. They wanted it,” Terceira said. “They played well...today we settled down and worked hard, and they really wanted it.”

Caleigh Coughlan was the high scorer in the game for MHS hitting for 10 points. Morris had seven and Lindsay Stewart scored five.

“It was a very low scoring game, and these two teams are pretty equally matched, and the game was great, and the fans were great. I think the girls came out here ready to play in a good basketball game and we were the victors this time out.”
Last Friday South Shore won the first game between the two teams by four points, 52-48. The Lady Warriors held a four-point lead at halftime and held on through the second half.

Stewart had a career night scoring the ball for the Lady Falcons as she hit for 17 in the game. Coughlan netted eight and Douglas had seven.

MHS now awaits the seedings for the MIAA tournament to be announced. The tournament pairings will be announced next Friday.

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