SHARON, Mass. - The top two teams from the Davenport division met on Thursday night in the rubber match of the season series in front of a packed house and played a game worthy of the moment. With a trip to the Division 2 South sectional semifinal on the line, division champion Sharon (14-8) rallied in the fourth quarter to overturn a nine-point deficit and pulled out a 52-50 victory over rival Oliver Ames (10-12).
“They’re way better than what their seed indicated,” said Sharon coach Kate Horsmann about OA, which was the No. 15 seed but upset No. 2 Plymouth North in the first round.
She added, “Just what this team has been through this year, for them to do what they did I’m just so proud and I’m so happy for them. We were just trying to hang in there [earlier this season] until the girls came back from injury. The fact that we won any games during that period, you have to give it to every kid on this team.”
Sharon’s season was on the brink entering the final quarter, as OA led 39-30, its largest lead of the game, and was on a 7-2 run. But the Eagles found a spark in the usual combination of point guard Lily Abarbanel (13 points, seven in the fourth) and Hockomock MVP Karlie O’Driscoll (game-high 15 points) as well as an unexpected contribution from Jenna Kubiak (six points, all in the fourth) to come away with the win.
Sharon outscored the Tigers 22-11 in the quarter and finished the game on a 12-4 run.
“Sharon had a great game and their scorers scored,” explained OA coach Laney Clement-Holbrook. “It’s nice having the MVP of the league on your team because O’Driscoll is tough -- you have to double-team her. When we went to man, she just went to the block and we had no weakside help.”
This was the stage of the game when the big name players need to step up.
OA senior point guard Kate Holleran, who has been playing despite a serious back injury that forces her to wear a brace, drove baseline for a reverse layup. Abarbanel answered back with a three-pointer, but Holleran came right back down and hit a tough fall-away in traffic. Not to be outdone, Abarbanel responded again with a step-back three that made it just 48-46 inside the final two minutes.
“She took two shots that I had never seen her take in her entire career,” said Holbrook. “That reverse layup, she’s never done that before and I said to her where the heck did that come from and she just smiled. That kid is gutsy, gutsy. She is a trooper.”
“We tell Lily all the time shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot and she doesn’t shoot a lot. I think she realized if I don’t shoot this ball then we’re not going to win. And thank God they went in.
A free throw by Emma Williams extended the lead by a point and then O’Driscoll took over. Matched up one-on-one against Lievi in the post, the senior forward and league’s leading scorer spun middle and scored plus a foul to tie the game at 49-49. On the next possession, O’Driscoll got it on the block again and again OA had no answer and she gave the Eagles their first lead since it was 14-13 in the first quarter.
“It was an MVP performance,” said Horsmann. “There are some other really fine players in the league but when you come through all the difficulty that we came through I wouldn’t trade her for any other girl in the league.”
The Tigers had a chance to regain the lead, but Lievi’s drive to the basket was blocked by O’Driscoll, who added eight steals and eight rebounds to her 15 points on what was a mostly frustrating night offensively.
After the game, O’Driscoll remarked, “If I’m not hitting on offense then I try to do a little extra on defense without trying to foul. I just saw [Lievi] coming and, I don’t know, I was just there for the moment and it was awesome.”
“This was a great effort; what a great game,” said Holbrook. “They left it out on the floor and that’s what you can ask for.”
She added, “They’ve all grown as players and they’ve all really grown as people. Over the last couple of weeks, they were able to show what they were made of we just weren’t granted enough time.”
Lievi led the Tigers on the night with 15 points, including seven in the first quarter to bring the Tigers back after a quick start by Sharon, but the Eagles defense was able to shut her out in the fourth quarter. Alyssa Piazza added eight points for Sharon.
In the celebration that followed the hard-fought win, O’Driscoll reflected, “It’s unreal that we’ve had so many injuries and so many illnesses and that two of our starters have been out for most of the season. It’s really amazing how far the younger players and the players that didn’t play much last season how much they’ve stepped up and really made an impact on our team this season.”
Sharon advances to play No. 3 O’Bryant, which beat Nauset on Thursday. The game will be at Massassoit in Brockton at a time and date to be determined.
Josh Perry can be contacted at [email protected] and followed on Twitter at @Josh_Perry10.