RallyNorth.net

Andover runs into semifinals

Saturday, March, 05 By Jeff Hamrick

ANDOVER — Playing a team it had beaten handily less than two weeks earlier and a final climatic showdown with rival Central Catholic looming, it would have been understandable if the Golden Warriors had been looking ahead.

Instead, it was vintage, dominant Andover girls basketball at its best.

With Natalie Gomez-Martinez distributing the gifts and Nicole Boudreau and Ally Fazio nailing jumpers, the second-seeded Warriors routed seventh-seeded Cambridge Rindge & Latin 77-52 yesterday afternoon in the quarterfinals of the Division 1 North sectional. The victory sends defending state champion Andover (23-1) into a semifinal encounter with No. 3 Central (20-2) at a time and place to be determined.

Andover wasted little time against the visiting Falcons (15-7), scoring the game’s first 14 points en route to a 26-5 advantage with 63 seconds remaining in the opening quarter. During the run, Gomez-Martinez had four assists while Fazio went 3 of 5 from 3-point range and Boudreau converted three of her four field goals.

“We knew we had to come in strong,” said Gomez-Martinez, who had 15 points, seven assists and three steals. “We played them (12 days earlier when Andover won 80-67)  and it was closer. We knew what they had, but this was a playoff game. It was a big game, and it was my last home game as a senior. So, we knew we had to come out strong, and I think we did real well doing that.”

Cambridge, which had 21 offensive rebounds used a 13-2 run midway through the second to cut its deficit to nine, but that would be as close as the Falcons would get again.

Fazio ended up scoring 12 of her 15 points — on five treys — in the first half while Boudreau had 10 of her game-high 23 in the first quarter. In the half, the Golden Warriors went 15 of 30 from the floor with only seven turnovers, while holding the Falcons to 10 of 37 shooting as Andover took a 41-27 lead into intermission.

“We knew we had Central waiting for us, but we couldn’t take this team too lightly,” said Boudreau, who scored a season-best 39 points in the first game against Cambridge. “They’re a great team, so we needed to come out with some intensity. I think we started out pretty well and that gave us momentum for the rest of the game.”
In the second, Andover built leads of 30 at the end of the third before taking it’s biggest advantage on a fastbreak layup by Olivia Biles with 4:49 left in the game.

“They know we take one game at a time,” Andover coach Jim Tildsley said. “We don’t look ahead, and our goal is to come out strong right away, and we’ve done that in the two (tournament) games so far. Right now, we’re pretty well focused.”