NORTH ATTLEBORO, Mass. - Junior guard Kerri beland scored 21 points, including 14 in the second half, to lead Attleboro (11-4, 8-3) to a 56-37 victory over North Attleboro (7-5, 7-2) on Tuesday night at the Kenneth Pickering Gymnasium. The victory clinches a tournament spot for the Bombardiers with seven games remaining.
“I don’t know if people really understand how big of a deal this is for the Attleboro High girls’ basketball program,” asserted third-year head coach Missy Traversi. “Ever since I was hired, we have not had a win against North Attleboro and the manner that we did it speaks volumes to how far our program has come. They’re on fire right now and I’m so proud of them.”
Attleboro had struggled against the North Attleboro zone in the first half, but in the third quarter both Beland and sophomore Emily Houle (11 points) found themselves open for a pair of three-pointers apiece. Beland added four free throws and a pair of layups in the fourth quarter as Attleboro outscored North 18-6 in the final period to pull away for a decisive win.
Traversi said, “The fourth quarter has always been our struggle against North Attleboro and tonight the girls just pushed through it. I’m speechless.”
“We haven’t beaten North in so long and now we’re going to the tournament, so it’s just really exciting,” said Beland amid the celebrations on the Attleboro bench following the win. “Now we just get to get more wins and try to get a higher seed and maybe we’ll go father in the tournament than we did last year.”
The first half was very even between the two rivals. It took Attleboro nearly five minutes before its first made shot before freshman Sarah Deyo (five points) buried a three-pointer. Beland added another three and the Bombardiers ended the first leading 10-8.
North Attleboro tied the game at 18-18 after a steal and layup by junior forward Melissa Beaupre, who scored six points in the first half but struggled with an injured ankle through a scoreless second half. Houle responded with a big three to give the Bombardiers back the lead before halftime. She also played excellent defense on North guard Danielle Perron and helped limit her to just two points on 1-13 shooting.
Beland described the defensive game plan for Attleboro against Perron. She said, “We planned on switching all of our screens so they couldn’t get any easy drives and we got out to all their shooters because we know that they’re really good three-point shooters.”
Attleboro used four three-pointers in the third quarter to help give themselves a cushion heading into the fourth. North freshman Ashley Ahern (eight points) gave the Rocketeers a glimmer of hope with a three before the end of the quarter, but then Attleboro’s defense stepped up.
The Bombardiers used a 9-0 run to start the fourth before another Ahern three. Attleboro then closed on a 9-3 run. Junior Kimi Runey buried a big three-pointer following a pair of missed free throws by North and Attleboro was able to get the ball inside the North zone with a pair of layups by senior Bri Laplume and one by Beland.
“We did a lot of penetrating and pitching,” said Beland about the Bombardiers offensive attack. “That worked a lot -- we got it out to our shooters. We drove and drew fouls on them, which was something that we wanted to do the whole game.”
North Attleboro head coach John DelBonis gave all the credit to Attleboro for its effort on both ends of the court and admitted that the Bombardiers were the better team on the day.
“I got to give them a tremendous amount of credit,” he said. “They took us out of our offense; they denied the cuts well; they rebound well; they played terrific. They got us out of our zone a little bit. They deserved to win and they took it to us. I’ll give them credit; they did a great job.”
Last season, Attleboro needed to wait until nearly the final week of the season before clinching a playoff appearance. This year, the Bombardiers have removed the suspense, but Traversi is not settling for just qualifying -- she wants the team to continue its momentum.
She said, “We are not letting down. These girls are playing the best basketball right now and we just need to keep it going and keep pushing through the Hock. Who knows what can happen?”
Attleboro will host Davenport-leading Sharon on Friday night, while North Attleboro takes on Durfee on Wednesday.
Josh Perry can be contacted at [email protected] and followed on Twitter at @Josh_Perry10.