DANVERS — One half of the final box score was exactly what Pentucket would have wanted in its upset bid of No. 1 Bishop Fenwick in Saturday’s Division 3 quarterfinal.
–Bishop Fenwick scored just 39 points.
–The Crusaders didn’t hit a 3-pointer.
–Pentucket held Division I college commit and 1,000-point scorer Caitlin Boyle to just four points.
All signs that would have you thinking upset, right?
Well, yes … but there were just two problems.
Bishop Fenwick was more than capable of putting together its own defensive masterclass, and Pentucket just couldn’t buy a shot. A tough combination for the visiting No. 8 Panthers to overcome despite their own defensive prowess, and a combination that ultimately saw the No. 1-ranked Crusaders march on to the Division 3 Final Four with a 39-23 victory.
“Defensively we played well,” said Pentucket coach John McNamara. “Then offensively we had some shots that we missed, but (Bishop Fenwick) found a way to disrupt our offense a little bit with all of their pressure. And then when we got some good shots, we rushed them because of the tempo of their defense. That was the difference.”
Unfortunately, the final score won’t reflect how close this game was.
Pentucket (18-6) really was in it until the final few minutes, and got off to a fast start thanks to five quick points each from Amelia Crowe and Allie Gagnon. But Bishop Fenwick (18-5) also got off to a hot start, with its other Division I college commit in Central Connecticut-bound Celia Nielson (17 pts) leading her team to a 16-12 lead after the first quarter. In a cruel bit of irony for the Panthers, Fenwick’s top scorers were “CAL athletes” in the Georgetown native Nielson, and guard Brittney Figulski (6 pts) of Amesbury.
Defense, though, eventually took center stage.
Breaking its norm, Pentucket went to a zone in the second quarter, and dared Bishop Fenwick to beat it from the perimeter. Forwards Devyn Walsh (4 pts, 7 rebs) and Chloe Dancewicz (2 pts, 10 rebs) did a great job clogging the paint for the Panthers, and did their best to keep the 6-foot-2 Boyle in check — who, to her immense credit, still found a way to impact the game with 8 rebounds and a handful of assists.
And the switch-up worked.
Bishop Fenwick got plenty of looks from beyond the arc, many of them wide open, but didn’t hit a 3 all game.
“That was our Plan B, and we went to it pretty early,” said McNamara. “And it worked. We played a zone, which we’re not known for playing, and it kept us in the game.
“But we needed to make some timely shots.”
And maybe if Pentucket could have gotten just ONE lead.
A 22-16 game at halftime, the Panthers came out of the break and got two straight buckets from Walsh and Dancewicz to immediately bring it back to one possession. The Crusaders got a layup from Figulski and free throws from Boyle to push the lead back to six, but Crowe (12 pts) swished a huge 3 to make it 26-23 with just under two minutes left in the third quarter.
But little did Pentucket know at the time … that would be its last points.
The Panthers had multiple earlier possession where they could have taken a lead, and a couple near the end of the third were a 3 would have tied the game. But they could just never pull ahead, even just briefly, to see how the top seed would have dealt with that pressure.
“I think it would have helped us (to grab a lead),” said McNamara. “I don’t know what it would have done to (Bishop Fenwick), but it would have helped us. We were battling uphill against them the whole time.”
A pair of hustle plays from freshman Taisha Castillo helped to bump the lead up to seven early in the fourth, which was followed by an and-1 from Neilson to make it double digits at 33-23. Which, with how defensive the game was on both ends, might as well have been an 100-point lead. Neilson then acted as the closer to send her Crusaders moving on to the Final Four, ending the game with a strong take to the hoop before getting fouled and draining both from the stripe.
Obviously, it’s not the end to the season that Pentucket wanted.
The program has made four straight state quarterfinals now, but each time has been stopped from going any further. That, however, shouldn’t define what this six-person senior class was able to accomplish. The class of Crowe, Gagnon, Dancewicz, Sofia Bellacqua, Carly Foley and Emily Day went an incredible 78-20 combined over their tenures, while making it to an Elite 8 every year. Then we all know the mountains of deserved accolades that have been heaped onto Crowe, who ends her Pentucket career with 1,176 points and will now move on to Babson College.
“The senior class is a special group,” said McNamara. “They’re all National Honor Society and they’re all great kids both in the classroom and off the court. Good basketball players, too. It’s been a special group.”
Bishop Fenwick 39, Pentucket 23
Division 3 Quarterfinals
Pentucket (23): Sofia Bellacqua 0-0-0, Allie Gagnon 2-0-5, Amelia Crowe 4-2-12, Devyn Walsh 1-2-4, Chloe Dancewicz 1-0-2, Michaela Gabardi 0-0-0, Lexi Thompson 0-0-0, Emily Day 0-0-0, Carly Foley 0-0-0, Kate Dubow 0-0-0, Bella Hernandez 0-0-0, Maddie Halmen 0-0-0, Adeline Carll 0-0-0, Kelsey Hicks 0-0-0, Fiona Walsh 0-0-0. Totals 8-4-23
Bishop Fenwick (39): Caitlin Boyle 1-2-4, Reese Spurchise 2-0-4, Abby Jenkins 0-0-0, Celia Neilson 7-3-17, Brittney Figulski 3-0-6, Kyleigh Pidgeon 0-2-2, Taisha Castillo 3-0-6, Jane Koulopoulos 0-0-0. Totals 16-7-39
3-pointers: BF — None; P — Crowe 2, Gagnon
Pentucket (18-6): 12 4 7 0 — 23
Bishop Fenwick (18-5): 16 6 6 11 — 39