Sports Insider by Frank Coppola: St. Thomas girls ousted in semifinals

February 20, 2008

St. Thomas girls ousted in semifinals

By Mike O’Neil
MANCHESTER — Even though the game was less than two minutes old, the Hanover High School girls basketball team had already set the tone in Wednesday’s Class I semifinal against St. Thomas.

After the Saints had missed their first shot of the night, Cortney Ness gathered the rebound and quickly hit Liz BelBruno down the court for an easy two. Seconds later, Ness passed to a wide-open Eliza Polli before any St. Thomas player had a chance to even reach half court.

With Ness a force on both ends, the Marauders made easy work of the Saints, holding St. Thomas to just 10 points in the second half of their 48-22 win at Southern New Hampshire University.

After splitting a pair of games this season, the second-ranked Marauders (19-1) will face top-seeded and defending champion Lebanon (20-1) for the Class I crown on Saturday.

Third-seeded St. Thomas finished its season at 18-3.

“I really thought the key to this game was getting up early,” said Hanover coach Dan O’Rourke. “I really wanted us to get a four- or six-point lead so we could settle in.”

And settle in they did, bridging the first and second quarters with a 10-2 run and taking a 20-10 lead with 5:28 left in the first half.

“It was 20-12 and we had the ball twice and threw them both away,” said Saints coach Larry Averill. “They were the kind of turnovers that were very uncommon with this team, and we just never seemed to calm down.”

After triggering the offense with a pair of outlet passes earlier in the half, Ness was untouchable at the other end, as her reverse layup with 6:17 to go in the second quarter gave Hanover an 18-10 advantage.

“Her transition right off the bat set the tone,” said Averill. “We just didn’t execute physically.”

Hanover’s 6-foot junior center finished the night with a game-high 17 points to go with 10 boards.

“She owned the boards,” said O’Rourke. “We did a great job holding (St. Thomas) to one shot, and when you start getting late into the playoffs, you have to own the boards. You can’t give up second chances.”

The Marauders shot 50 percent from the field, and the fact that they did it against one of the better defenses in Class I made it a bigger accomplishment. The Saints allowed just 37 points per game this season and held their opponents under 40 points 11 times.

“In the last two years, we noticed we’ve been able to spread teams out,” said O’Rourke. “We have the presence inside and then we can shoot from the outside.”

The Saints struggled with their shooting all night long, going 8-for-45 (18 percent) from the field, including 0-for-8 from beyond the 3-point arc. At one point, St. Thomas went over nine minutes without a field goal.

“They had people in our face all night long,” said Averill. “We really didn’t have the space we were used to having.”
“We knew we had to focus on (Marie) Girard, (Shannon) Kean and (Courtney) Tobey inside,” said O’Rourke. “We couldn’t let those three beat us. If we could hold Girard to around 12 and Kean and Tobey to maybe eight each, we’d be in good shape.”

Kean and Tobey finished with four points each, while Girard finished with two.

“We wanted to extend out on them,” said O’Rourke. “They had something like six threes in the quarterfinal game, so we wanted to have them beat us off drives.”

HANOVER 48, ST. THOMAS 22
ST. THOMAS (22)
Girard 1-0-2, Kean 2-0-4, St. Laurent 0-2-2, Tobey 1-2-4, Hickman 1-0-2, MacDonald 1-0-2, Sheehan 2-1-5, Karpel 0-1-1. Totals: 8-6-22.
HANOVER (48)
Polli 3-0-6, BelBruno 3-1-8, Chaltain 2-0-4, Ness 8-1-17, Robinson 0-4-4, Halsey 0-2-2, Menge 2-1-5, Dodge 0-2-2. Totals: 18-11-48.
St. Thomas 8 4 4 6 — 22
Hanover 16 10 10 12 — 48
3-pointers — Hanover 1: BelBruno. Fouled out — None.

Posted by Frank Coppola at February 20, 2008 11:40 PM

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