Bethel Loses To Lady Blue Devils

 

Whitcomb's Molly Taylor moves the ball around the court in last Thursday's play-off game. The Williamstown girls ran away with the win. (Herald / Joyce Hunt)

By Laurie-Jean B. Gauthier

Back in December, the Whitcomb Lady Hornets and the Williamstown Blue Devils faced each other in their only scheduled regular season contest. The Blue Devils squeezed out a two-point victory 39-37 sans injured senior and four-year starting point guard Stephanie St. Onge. Such was not the case when the 13^th ranked Hornets faced the #5 seeded Blue Devils in Williamstown in playoff action last Thursday. The Blue Devils didn’t squeeze out another two-point victory, they streaked past their visitors and nearly doubled their opponent’s game tally with a resounding 50-27.

Neither team scored off their first two attempts as both teams raced up and down the court, hoping to ignite the opening stanza, until Williamstown’s Stephanie Manwaring penetrated the paint for a two-point deposit at 6:35. An easy hoop by Stephanie Gagnon followed, as did an Emma Lamson basket, giving Williamstown six unanswered points.

A Laurel Adams steal and lay-up at 2:28 finally had Whitcomb on the board. That deposit was followed by a St. Onge free throw, which was only the start of an outstanding effort and performance by the Blue Devil leader

A second Adams basket and a Demi Aldrighetti bucket tightened the score to 7-6, before a period ending two-pointer bumped the Blue Devils back up by three.

During the second quarter Williamstown opened with three points, but the Hornets were right there with single free throw-ins by both Aldrighetti and Adams, and a Molly Taylor rebound and deposit for a 12-10 contest. Whitcomb, unfortunately, only managed a single charity point throughout the remainder of the quarter. Williamstown finished with a 21-11 halftime contest.

During the third period, the Blue Devils’ Gagnon and St. Onge, in particular, were on fire. Williamstown had a quick nine unanswered points and a commanding 30-11 Blue Devil lead. The Hornets never stopped trying and added five points from Adams and two Aldrighetti points before the Blue Devils ended the period on a run.

Down by 18, the Hornets never gave up with their attempt to beat Willliamstown, but the Blue Devils were having none of that. The Hornets added nine points to their take in the final period, but Williamstown matched that with 9-of-11 from the stripe, and added six additional points to clench the contest.

Hornets Adams, Aldrighetti and Taylor finished the game with 11 points, 8 points and 6 points respectively. St. Onge led all scorers with 16 points and Gagnon finished with 11 for Williamstown.

Whitcomb ends the season at 6-15, and loses the majority of their players. Adams, Aldrighetti, Willow Griffith, Tia McKenna, Taylor, Brittany Washburn and Emily Wright all graduate, and Virginia Wortman will be in South America on foreign exchange, which leaves Allison Richards (who missed the entire season due to healing after a torn ACL operation) and Brittany Flint.

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