Lee Girls Complete Season Sweep of Lenox

LEE, Mass. – Giana Carlino scored 16 points, and the Lee girls basketball team withstood a monumental comeback bid by Lenox to earn a 53-41 win on Thursday night.

 

The Wildcats led, 20-0, after one quarter. But the Millionaires battled back to take a 35-34 lead early in the fourth before Lee finished the game at the foul line.

 

Mika Diller recorded a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds, and Ella Simone finished with eight points and 11 boards as the Wildcats sent the home fans happy with a boys-girls double-header sweep and, for the girls, a season double-header sweep of their rivals to the north.

 

It looked early on like the girls game would have no drama at all.

 

Carlino scored the game’s first four points, and Diller had a couple of putbacks to help make it 13-0 a little more than three minutes in. Lee forced nine Lenox turnovers in the first quarter and went up, 20-0, after Ava Lucy scored the last five points of the quarter.

 

But Lenox answered with the first 14 points of the second quarter, getting within six when Evelyn Julieano (nine points) drove the lane to make it 20-14.

 

“We came out really strong, our intensity was really up there, and in the second quarter, I said, ‘Let’s work on a few things,’ “ Lee coach Lexi Mercier said. “I feel like our intensity came down a little bit with that, but we came back with the same intensity the third and fourth quarters.”

 

Lee ended the first half with a basket by Leanna Driscoll and a triple from Ari Noyes to go into the locker room ahead, 25-14.

 

But Lenox started chipping away again in the third.

 

Katie Shove (nine points, 10 rebounds) hit a pair of free throws and then scored in the post to close the third quarter, making it a five-point game at 34-29.

 

Then Lenox’s press break produced a layup and an and-one for Layla Soules to start the fourth, getting the visitors within one. Shove’s 3-pointer with 6 minutes, 55 seconds to play gave the Millionaires a 35-34 lead.

 

Lee answered with an 8-0 spurt that ended with a triple from Simone (eight points, 11 rebounds) to make it 42-35 midway through the fourth.

 

Mercier said she felt like at that point, Lee’s depth – 12 players to Lenox’s eight – started to take a toll on the Millionaires.

 

“They’re a tough team,” Mercier said. “And our big thing tonight was, if we can run them off the floor … That was our main focus: Run them off the floor and make their shooters not be able to set up, because they have a great shooting team.”

 

Lenox coach Nicole Patella said her shorter bench was a factor, but not for the reason you might think.

 

“You need your legs in the fourth quarter, but I don’t think that was our issue,” she said. “It could have been, because our shots didn’t fall. But we had layups we missed. We had an out-of-bounds play where we missed the shot.

 

“Stuff like that comes down to not being able to scrimmage in practice because I have eight girls.”

 

Lee made 10 of 19 free throws in the fourth quarter. Carlino alone was 6-for-6 from the line in the period. And in the final minute, Carlino, Simone and Kenzie Garrity combined to go 5-for-6 at the stripe to put the game on ice.

 

Both teams came into Thursday’s game with something to prove.

 

For Lenox, it was about erasing the memory of a 61-33 loss to the Wildcats in the season opener.

 

“They didn’t give up, they didn’t hang their heads, they battled the whole game,” Patella said of Lenox’s response to the rough first quarter. “I knew they would. They really improved from the first time they saw [Lee]. 

 

“They really wanted to come down here and prove that they weren’t a 30-point loss. And I think they did that. … It’s been a long year, but they keep coming in and working and getting better.”

 

Lee, meanwhile, wanted to erase the memory of Tuesday’s loss at Hoosac Valley, just the Wildcats’ third loss of the season.

 

“That was definitely a tough game for us,” Mercier said. “It wasn’t one of our best. A lot of things to learn from that game, and we came out tonight and played with a lot better intensity.”

 

Lee (9-3) will look for its 10th win on Friday night at Mohawk Trail.

 

Lenox (2-8) hosts Mount Greylock on Friday.

 

Photos from this game to come.