RallyNorth.net

Higgins, Sachems crush Clippers

Sunday, March, 04 By Dave Dyer
Staff writer

HAVERHILL — The rust showed on Sarah Higgins and the rest of the Pentucket girls basketball team in the Division 3 North quarterfinals at Whittier Tech yesterday afternoon — for about four minutes.

After that, it was all golden as the No. 3-seed Sachems (19-4) rolled over Cape Ann League foe Newburyport for the third time this year, 56-29, to advance to Thursday’s semifinals at Beverly against No. 2 Swampscottt (18-3).

By halftime, it was obvious that the Sachems would coast in this one, but it wasn’t so evident in the early going.

The Sachems had three turnovers in the first two and a half minutes and missed their first four shots, three of which were layups, as Newburyport managed a 3-0 lead through four minutes. Higgins, the athletic 5-foot-9 senior, was particularly off, missing her first five shots.

But center Tess Nogueira converted an old fashioned 3-point play to tie the score and that seemed to ignite the Sachems. After Cady Bennett put Newburyport up 5-3, Pentucket scored the last 11 points of the first quarter and went on an 18-1 run that provided a cushion that would last the rest of the game.

After her slow start, Higgins was the catalyst, making the last six shot attempts in the first half and all four free throws to give her 16 points at halftime, during which the Sachems led 31-12. By adding eight points in the second half, she ended with a career-high 24 points while also pulling down eight rebounds and grabbing four steals.

“I felt a little tight at first but once I got my legs going, I felt good,” said Higgins. “It was a long time since we played ... the coach told us to keep our intensity up in practice and that would help.”

Other than the first few minutes, Pentucket coach John McNamara liked what he saw.

“We started slow but then our defense picked up and we played pretty well,” said McNamara. “We’re only as good as our defense.”

Coley Viselli added eight points for Pentucket, Tori Lane added seven and freshman Kelsi McNamara chipped in with six, but Newburyport coach Gregg Dollas thought that was all incidental.

“Higgins is their team,” said Dollas. “She’s all-league for a reason. We couldn’t stop her and their defense forced us to play faster than we want.”

Pentucket center Tess Nogueira scored just three points but she only played a little more than half of the first quarter as McNamara elected to rest her the rest of the game.

“She’s a little banged up — nothing serious — and we didn’t feel we needed her today,” said McNamara. “She’ll be fine for Thursday.”

Mary Pettigrew led Newburyport, which had 24 turnovers and was 4 for 19 from the floor 3 of 9 from the line in the first half, with 10 points.