Well, it’s all up in “the committee’s” hands now.
As far as the Pentucket girls basketball team is concerned, its done about as well as it can do during the 2023-24 regular season. On Tuesday, the Panthers won the St. Mary’s Spartan Classic tournament for the second straight year, beating Whitman-Hanson in their division’s title game, 53-37. The victory wraps up a 20-1 winter campaign for the Panthers (19-1 as viewed by the MIAA, as the team’s Endowment Game against Dracut didn’t officially count), and now they wait to see if that will be enough to earn them a top-8 seed in the Division 3 state tournament.
Of course, with that record, you’d think a team would be vying for No. 1.
But with the overall weakness of the CAL as a league this year, Pentucket couldn’t really help its ranking too often with wins. At the very least, realizing the circumstances, you’d hope the Panthers could at bare minimum land a top-8 seed so they could host two playoff games if they were to continue to win. They were at No. 9 in the latest rankings, so we’ll see if a victory over a Division 2 opponent in Whitman-Hanson will bump them up that one coveted spot when the official pairings get released on Saturday morning.
Anyway, regarding the game.
Tied up 21-21 at the half, Pentucket went on a big run to open the third led by Gabby Bellacqua (18 pts) and Amelia Crowe (13 pts). Ultimately, the Panthers doubled up their opponent 32-16 in the second half to pull away for a rather convincing win. Ava DiBurro added 9 points as well, and after the game both her and Bellacqua (MVP) were selected to the All-Tournament team.
GEORGETOWN GETS BIG WIN OVER BILLERICA
It got a little closer at the end than the Georgetown boys basketball team would have wanted, but it still got the job done.
A big run during the third quarter gave the Royals a comfortable lead, and they were able to hold off a furious rally to earn a huge win over a Division 2 opponent in Billerica, 75-74. The Merrimack Valley is perhaps the best overall conference in the state this winter, with five teams ranked inside of the top-9 in Division 1. So to earn a victory over anyone in that league is putting in a good day’s work.
The basket looked as big as an ocean to junior sharpshooter Jack Duggan, who drained eight 3s and had 24 points. Fellow junior Jalen Andujar made three 3s and added 15 points, and both Jackson Lasquade and freshman Jomar Terrero chipped in 12.
Georgetown (15-5) came in at No. 10 in the latest Division 4 rankings, so we’ll see where Tuesday’s win leaves them when the bracket gets released this weekend.
Georgetown 75, Billerica 74 (Boys)
Georgetown (75): Lasquade 6-0-12, Loewen 0-2-2, Andujar 6-0-15, Duggan 8-0-24, Terrero 5-2-12, Rosario 0-0-0, Yones 0-0-0, Perez 1-0-3, Zapata 3-0-7. Totals 29-4-75
3-pointers: Duggan 8, Andujar 3, Perez, Zapata
Georgetown (15-5): 26 15 13 21 — 75
Billerica: 13 18 15 28 — 74
Pentucket 53, Whitman-Hanson 37 (Girls)
Pentucket (53): S. Bellacqua 0-6-6, Conover 1-0-2, Gagnon 2-0-4, DiBurro 3-1-9, G. Bellacqua 6-4-18, Crowe 5-1-13, Dancewicz 0-1-1. Totals 17-13-53
3-pointers: DiBurro 2, G. Bellacqua 2, Crowe 2
Whitman-Hanson: 6 15 7 9 — 37
Pentucket (20-1): 7 14 14 18 — 53
Beverly 59, Triton 51 (Girls)
Triton (51): Renda 3-3-10, D’Andrea 6-2-15, Lesinski 0-0-0, Jones 0-0-0, Basile 0-0-0, Liebert 5-2-12, Welch 3-0-7, Hatheway 3-0-7, Johnson 0-0-0. Totals 20-7-51
3-pointers: Renda, D’Andrea, Welch, Hatheway
Triton (10-10): 8 10 14 19 — 51
Beverly: 15 13 16 15 — 59
East Bridgewater 50, Georgetown 23 (Girls)
Georgetown (23): Pierson 0-0-0, Hughes 0-0-0, Kane 1-0-3, Morrison 2-0-4, Mariani 3-2-11, Thompson 0-0-0, Ziolkowski 0-0-0, Davies 1-0-2, Upite 1-1-3. Totals 8-3-23
3-pointers: Mariani 3, Kane
Records: Georgetown 13-8