Drury Wins Defensive Battle, Breaks Skid Against Wahconah

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – Ella Bond scored nine points, and the Drury girls basketball team Wednesday beat Wahconah for the first time in 10 years.

 

Ashlyn Hayden added eight points, including 5-of-8 shooting from the foul line in the fourth quarter as the Blue Devils survived a defensive struggle with a 37-31 win to improve to 2-0 this winter.

 

“Well it wasn’t pretty and probably ugly at times, but to beat good programs like Wahconah, you need to be able to win ugly, Drury coach Ian Downey said.

 

“Really it was two defensive minded teams going toe to toe all night. Their traps bothered us more than I thought it would. Their players are sneaky long and get their hands on everything.”

 

Addisyn Sheppard scored four of her six points in the first quarter, when Drury took a 12-7 lead.

 

“First half we gave up too many offensive rebounds and didn’t protect the ball,” Downey said. “So we were struggling to finish possessions. Second half, turnovers still haunted us but I thought the girls responded much better in the second half to finishing defensive possessions. I thought we controlled the boards a little better and got to 50/50 balls.

 

“The other big thing was the defensive job we did on [Madison] McCarthy and [Danielle] Hagmaier. Holding those two to nine total points was probably the difference in the game. To beat good teams like Wahconah, you need to play defense, and I thought we did that tonight.”

 

Hagmaier scored five points, and McCarthy had four. Anna Doyle led Wahconah with nine points.

 

Wahconah had won 11 straight meetings between the two programs.

 

The last time Drury beat Wahconah was Feb. 18, 2016, the second time the Blue Devils won in the series that winter. That Drury team went on to play in the Western Massachusetts Division 3 finals (under the old sectional tournament format), falling to Hoosac Valley on the Hurricanes’ run to the state title game.

 

This year’s Blue Devils have their first visit with Hoosac Valley on Friday in Cheshire.

 

Wahconah (1-1) is home on Friday against Pope Francis.