GAME RECAP: Falmouth at Marshfield (January 13, 2009)
Final Score: Marshfield 57, Falmouth 45
Last year’s tournament was supposed to turn out much differently for the Falmouth Clippers girls basketball team. Their 15-3 record earned them the #2 seed in the Division 1 South bracket of the state tournament, and once they breezed through an opening round game against 10-10 Marshfield, the Clippers were looking forward to a bracket that promised match-ups against league rival Sandwich and arch-rival Barnstable. However, something funny happened on the way to the second round.
The Lady Rams managed to travel down to Falmouth and play their best game of the year. Freshman Nicole Beresford dominated the first half, and when the Falmouth defense adjusted to attack her in the second half, seniors Shannon Piatelli and Taryn Asta took over to lead the Rams offense to a big 50-36 upset win.
Needless to say, Falmouth arrived in Marshfield last night with plenty of motivation going into their first meeting since that game. Nevertheless, the Lady Rams were able to come out on top once again, 57-45.
Sophomore leader Nicole Beresford had a quiet first half for Marshfield, with only 3 points, but the Rams went into halftime with a 12-point lead thanks to the offensive tandem of junior Kendra Kerr and freshman Erin Doherty, who combined to score 21 of the team’s 24 first-half points.
Falmouth, playing without one of their returning starters from last year’s team—out with an apparent injury—relied heavily on returning ACL all-star Nicole Le-Blanc (17 points, 3 rebounds) and Kate Levy (20 points, 6 rebounds…this after her 22-point performance last Friday against Barnstable). The Clippers made a hard charge to start the third quarter and narrowed the deficit to 6 with 3 minutes left in the third quarter, but that’s when Doherty made her first appearance of the second half for Marshfield and began attacking the glass again (13 total rebounds on the night), minimizing the available opportunities for Falmouth. From that point on, the Rams pulled away again for good, despite some impressive three-point shooting by Falmouth down the stretch.
Kerr led the Rams in scoring against Falmouth (19 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, 3 blocks), and double-doubles were posted by Doherty (18 points, 13 rebounds, 2 steals) and Beresford (13 points, 11 rebounds, 4 steals, 2 blocks, 2 assists).
The Rams play again on Friday night, when they will travel to Plymouth South for another league match-up. That game will kick off 3 straight road games for the girls team, the second of which will be a rematch against Bridgewater-Raynham, who handed Marshfield its only loss in the season opener for both teams. B-R is still undefeated, so it should be an interesting game to watch out for next Wednesday.
A field report and highlight reel from last night’s game is available below:
HIGHLIGHT REEL:
The song used in this school project is the beat from “This DJ” by Warren G (no relation to Kenny G). Available on iTunes.
