WEST NEWBURY — Truth be told, it probably shouldn’t have come down to the final possession like it did.
With 90 seconds remaining in Friday’s game, Amelia Crowe drove hard to the basket, took the contact, and converted the and-1 to put host Pentucket up 45-37 over visiting North Reading. It was the emotional highlight of a well-executed second half for the home team that got the entire Panther bench — and student section — on its feet, and really should have acted as the dagger.
But the Hornets just wouldn’t go away.
In a span of 30 seconds, Caitlin Reilly drained a 3, then came away with a steal and a layup to make it a one-possession game at 45-42. Crowe would get fouled and score her 19th point of the night to push it back to a two-possession game, but a layup from Maggie Schulz made it 46-44 with 4.7 second left.
Okay, no problem.
All the Panthers need to do is inbound the ball, and the game is over, right?
Well, that becomes a bit harder when you throw the ball away.
So there North Reading was, with 4.7 seconds left, possession, and somehow a chance to either tie or win. The Hornets got the ball to Reilly (17 pts) beyond the arc, but Gabby Bellacqua was right on her hip, and leaped up to block the potential game winner to help Pentucket hold on for the dramatic, 46-44, win.
“(North Reading) is a hard-nosed team and they’re well coached,” said Pentucket coach John McNamara. “But we’ve got to play better at the end. I think our girls felt kind of bad because we had a 10-point lead and then we had a lot of mental mistakes, and credit to North Reading for keeping the intensity up. But I just told them, ‘Hey, we just got a win against a quality team. Lets look at it that way and get better from it.'”
So, yeah, not exactly the cleanest way to close out a game.
But for a Pentucket (8-1) squad that came in ranked No. 4 in Division 3 in the first release of the MIAA power rankings, there were still positives to take away. First and foremost being the simple fact of still beating a strong North Reading (5-4) team. The Panthers didn’t have their best shooting night of the year by any stretch, but Bellacqua (8 pts, 8 rebs), Ava DiBurro (6 pts, 8 rebs) and Kate Conover (7 rebs) stayed engaged defensively and helped the team dominate on the glass.
And Crowe has really started to emerge as a star.
The sophomore is second in the Daily News area in both scoring (11.8 ppg) and 3s (11), and over the last three games now has put up 19, 23 and 12 points. Fellow sophomore Sofia Bellacqua — Gabby’s sister — has stepped up as the team’s point guard, and the Panthers have been getting great contributions off the bench from Allie Gagnon, Ally Cacciapuoti and Maisie King.
“We hung on and won tonight, so we’ll take it,” said McNamara. “But we’ve got to get better.”
It was a 22-21 North Reading lead a halftime.
Rare defensive miscues put Pentucket in an early defecit, but the team broke out of it with an excellent third quarter. Which, naturally, started on the defensive end, thanks to the likes of Conover and Gagnon causing havoc with their press and forcing turnovers. Also, Gabby Bellacqua — a two-time Daily News All-Star — was held scoreless in the first half, but was more aggressive driving to the basket and helped the Panthers take a 36-29 lead into the final frame.
“We just picked up our intensity defensively and got some turnovers,” said McNamara. “We drove to the basket more and got a flow to our offense doing that. The first half we seemed out of sync defensively and allowed a lot of open 3s. So I think just picking the intensity in that third quarter helped the kids get into the flow of the game.”
The final seconds then proved to be more tense than anyone wanted, but the home team was able to hold on.
Pentucket 46, North Reading 44
North Reading (44): Lanciani 0-3-3, Cannalonga 1-1-4, Reilly 6-1-17, Schulz 2-2-6, Demetri 2-0-6, Wasilewski 0-0-0, Gallivan 1-3-5, Higgins 1-0-2. Totals 13-10-44
Pentucket (46): S. Bellacqua 2-0-5, Conover 0-3-3, DiBurro 2-0-6, G. Bellacqua 3-2-8, Crowe 7-4-19, Gagnon 2-0-5, Cacciapouti 0-0-0, King 0-0-0. Totals 16-9-46
3-pointers: P — DiBurro 2, S. Bellacqua, Crowe, Gagnon; NR — Reilly 4, Demetri 2, Cannalonga
North Reading (5-4): 15 7 7 15 — 44
Pentucket (8-1): 13 8 15 10 — 46