NORTH ATTLEBORO, Mass. - In the final moments of the fourth quarter, first-year North Attleboro coach Derek Herber walked to the end of the bench and sat down for the first time in the game. He leaned back in the seat and shared a smile and a laugh with his two senior captains, Melissa Beaupre and Danielle Perron.
The Rocketeers had broken the game open with a dominant third quarter and they could sit back and relax and set aside the disappointment of back-to-back seasons that ended in first round, home defeats. The pressure was off for the two seniors and the rookie coach and their excitement at moving on to round two was obvious.
“That first half I was thinking oh here’s one of those the great coach outcoaches the rookie,” joked Herber. “I think our athletes prevailed. We were able to play nine kids…and I think it was definitely a team effort.”
Perron added with a big grin of relief, “It feels really good.”
North Attleboro outscored Oliver Ames 23-2 in the third quarter (part of a 28-2 run overall) allowing only a pair of free throws and turned a nervy start into a comfortable 65-40 victory on Tuesday night at the Kenneth Pickering Gym. Perron led the way with 14 points, six assists, and five steals, and Beaupre chipped in with 11.
The easy, relaxed feeling was certainly not there for North at the start of the game. A couple of wild shots, five team fouls in the opening three minutes (including two on junior forward Emily Peters) and almost five minutes without a made field goal only increased the anxiety on the Rocketeers bench.
OA took advantage to jump out to an 8-2 lead with Meg Hurley scoring a fastbreak layup followed by four points from Mackenzie Webster. Depth has been a strength of North all season, as has youth, and it was sophomore Ashley Ahern that knocked down North’s first shot, a three from the right side, to make it 8-5 and it was followed seven straight points from reserve guard Samantha Taggart (nine points, three assists) all assisted by Perron to get North in front for the first time.
“They were nervous,” said Herber. “We have young kids and our style of play is frenetic anyways and they got caught up in the emotion of it. It took us about a half to get into the swing of things.”
Perron credited the bench for coming through when the team needed it. She said, “We had to get the jitters out. It was huge. None of our shots were falling, so we needed someone like Sam to step it up.”
Ahern added four of her seven points in the second quarter taking the ball to the basket and her classmate Caroline Collard added strength in the post with five of her nine points, as North started to get into a groove. Hurley kept OA close with six of her team-high 10 points and the Tigers had a huge advantage on the boards.
A Francesca Calabraro jumper cut the North lead to 25-24. The next time that OA put points on the board, it would be down by 20.
“It was like the difference of two different games,” said OA coach Elaine Clement-Holbrook. “Part of the problem that we had this year is we couldn’t play four quarters at that level of intensity. When you’re playing that caliber of a team then you have to play the whole game.”
North scored the final five points of the first half and came out with a very different attitude in the third quarter. The Rocketeers completely clamped down on the defensive end of the floor and on the glass. OA went 0-10 from the floor in the third and only scored on a pair of free throws by Webster (eight points, five rebounds).
“In the second half, I thought we did a better job of going and getting rebounds,” said Herber. “That allowed us to get out on the break.”
The Rocketeers scored 23 points, many of which came in transition from rebounds. Beaupre scored six points in the quarter, including a couple layups, and Julia Strachan (eight points) knocked down her first three of the game, but the star was Perron. The senior point guard played her best offensive game of the season and scored eight points in the quarter, while causing havoc on the defensive end as well.
She said, “They were getting easy shots and taking away our shots, so we had to take advantage of what we had. We needed more intensity. They wanted it more, it was obvious, so we had to come out strong.”
Herber praised his captain for playing her best in a big game. He said, “No doubt it was her best game. She was awesome in that third quarter. She jumped a couple passes, she grabbed a couple rebounds, she drove to the hoop -- she looked like a woman possessed out there.”
Between the second and third quarters, North put together a 28-2 run that essentially put the game away. The Rocketeers built a 53-26 lead heading into the fourth quarter and eased into a second round trip to No. 4 seed Westwood.
“When they did go to that 2-3 zone it made it difficult for us because we were kind of hiding in the passing lanes,” said Clement-Holbrook. “I think we were a little stunned because the shots just kept falling and now we’re getting deeper in a hole.”
She added, “If you take away one thing then someone else steps up and that’s what they did. Our game plan was that if they were going to beat us then they’re going to beat us from the outside and that’s what they did.”
North Attleboro (16-5) plays at Westwood on Thursday night at 6:30.
Josh Perry can be contacted at [email protected] and followed on Twitter at @Josh_Perry10.