NASHUA – Londonderry High School girls basketball coach John Fagula built a reputation as one of the most successful coaches in state history by pressing and running.
But Fagula, with 11 state titles and 595 wins under his belt, knows when to adjust to the situation.
He didn’t want to get into a full-throttle track meet with an athletic Nashua High School North team on Friday night. The Lancers instead used their size advantage and a patient offense to create clean looks from beyond the 3-point arc and hand North its first loss of the season, 65-48.
“It’s a big court, and they have too much quickness to get in a running game with them,’’ Fagula said. “In fact, some kids I normally play, some of the bigger kids, didn’t get in tonight because they just couldn’t match up with their speed.’’
But this one belonged to the Lancers right from the start. North’s game plan was to do its best to shut down Londonderry’s outstanding junior point guard, Aliza Simpson.
They did a pretty good job, holding her to 12 points. But it left others open, including junior guard Jaime King, who had all 18 of her points in the first half.
Londonderry took control of this one early, leading 18-4 after one quarter and 39-22 at halftime. The Lancers led by as many as 23 in the third quarter.
“The one thing I liked is that we never let up,’’ North coach Ricky Oliver said. “We got down early, but the intensity was there all night.’’
The swarming Titans forced the Lancers into an uncharacteristic 23 turnovers, but missed a lot of layups, shot just 17-for-51 from the floor and never really made a serious run.
The Titans cut an 18-point deficit to 12 midway through the second quarter when Taylor Choate completed a rare four-point play. Choate finished as the game’s high scorer with 22 points. But the Lancers quickly had the lead back to 18.
Londonderry had a much better shooting night, hitting 11 3-pointers, including four by Katherine Dzenis and three each by King and Jenna Conroy. Londonderry improved to 9-2 with the win, but Fagula was impressed with North.
“They keep coming and they anticipate extremely well,’’ Fagula said. “We knew they’d try to take Aliza away, and some of our other kids really stepped up.’’
Sara Cordova finished with six points for North and junior center Brittany Desroche had five points and six rebounds.
At Nashua
LONDONDERRY (65)
Jaime King 7-1-18, Aliza Simpson 2-7-12, Katherine Dzenis 4-0-12, Casey Evans 3-3-9, Jenna Conroy 3-0-9, Jordan Marett 2-1-5. Totals: 21-12-65
NASHUA NORTH (48)
Taylor Choate 7-5-22, Sara Cordova 2-1-6, Sarah Amrein 2-1-5, Brittany Desroche 2-1-5, Summer Choate 1-1-3, Marie Laplante 1-0-2, Kara Upton 1-0-2, Dezi Okorie 1-0-2, Genevieve Gosselin 0-1-1. Totals: 17-10-48
Londonderry (9-2) 18 21 17 9 - 65
Nashua North (9-1) 4 18 12 14 - 48
3-point goals: L – Dzenis 4, King 3, Conroy 3, Simpson. N – Chaote 3, Cordova. Prelim: Londonderry JVs, 42-30. Next Game: North at Keene on Tuesday.
Source:
http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/sports/highschoolsports/991627-457/patient-londonderry-hands-nashua-north-girls-basketball.html
No comments:
Post a Comment