Mount Greylock Girls Top Hornets

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires.com Sports
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NORTH ADAMS -- After losing its first three games of the season, the Mount Greylock girls' basketball team rebounded on Monday night -- in more ways than one.

Margot Besnard and Heather Tomkiewicz each pulled down a dozen rebounds, and Lucy Barrett scored a game-high 17 points to lead the Mounties to a 47-19 win over McCann Tech in an independent game.

Mount Greylock (1-3) grabbed an 18-2 lead out of the chute and held the Hornets to just one point in the third quarter.

One key was the way the Mounties came up big on the glass, earning a 52-40 edge in that department.

"My biggest thing was rebounding," Mount Greylock coach Paul Barrett said. "We have struggled the last two games because we haven't been putting a body on a body. I felt in the second half, we rebounded much better and started doing the little things we're looking to do.

"That, to me, was the biggest improvement that I enjoyed seeing."

He must also have enjoyed a stretch early in the second quarter when Besnard pulled down four offensive boards on three different possessions in the span of about two minutes.

Those caroms contributed to the run that opened the game.

When Sarah Stripp yanked down a defensive rebound and went the other way for a transition lay-in with about five minutes left in the half, the Mounties enjoyed their biggest lead of the half, a 16-point bulge.

But McCann (0-2) rallied from there to make it competitive for a while.

Four different Hornets scored in an 8-5 run to halftime. Kennedy Valois put back an offensive rebound of her own with about a minute left in the half to make it 23-10 going into the locker room.

"The end of the first half, they were playing well," McCann coach Mike Dowling said. "I thought we'd come out for the second half OK. But I just don't know."

After Mary Nguyen knocked down a free throw for one of her team-high 10 points to start the second half, Mount Greylock scored the next 15 points to close out the third quarter.

Lucy Barrett scored six during the run, which also featured another rebound-and-run by Stripp, who finished with seven points to go with four boards.

Eileen Zajac had 11 rebounds for McCann, which played the Mounties nearly even (20-16) in the second and fourth quarters but still ended up losing by 28 points.

Dowling said his team, which travels to St. Joe's on Wednesday, is a work in progress.

"It's a new program for us," Dowling said. "We're trying to teach them some basketball sense. We're trying to get them into some kind of rhythm they haven't had for a couple of years, and it's kind of frustrating."

Barrett also saw Monday's game as part of a process -- one that will continue after Christmas at Mount Everett on Dec. 28.

"We're working on a lot of things," he said. "We know we're a young team, and it's good to see some things get better and better. They worked hard out there. Now we've got to go on to the next one."

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