DiGennaro, Drury Top Monument Mountain

CHESHIRE, Mass. -- Brooke DiGennaro scored 19 points and had six second half steals Saturday to lead the Drury girls basketball team to a 66-49 win over Monument Mountain.

 

The Blue Devils took control of the game in the second half with their full-court 1-2-2 press -- surprising even their coach with their ability to force 10 second-half turnovers out of their pressure.

 

“Literally, it’s a press we put in two days ago,” Drury coach Ian Downey said. “I was a little leary of how well we were going to run it, but they ran it great. They ran it, for the most part, the exact way I wanted them to.

 

“The thing I was trying to explain to them was: You can’t be obsessed with stealing it on the first pass. In the press, there are multiple times when you can steal the ball. Even if they pass it over the top of you, as long as you can stay in it, there are multiple areas you can get a steal. That’s when you start seeing the steals at half-court.”

 

Drury (7-5) weathered an early storm en route to its fourth straight win.

 

Monument Mountain led, 14-7, midway through the first quarter when Meri Powell (14 points) got a steal and a basket in transition.

 

Fiona Horan (14 points) scored eight in the first quarter to help the Spartans (4-7) take a 16-11 lead into the second period.

 

Drury started the second on a 9-0 run, taking a, 18-16 lead when Tess Zoito (17 points) set up Kayla McGrath (12 points) for a 3-pointer. Zoito closed the run with a basket from the foul line after a Felix offensive rebound, and Drury was on its way to a 27-24 half-time lead.

 

Monument Mountain got a triple from Destiny Brown (12 points) and a Lauren Kinne bucket to take its last lead, 29-27, early in the second half.

 

Drury responded with three straight 3-pointers -- two from DiGennaro and one from Zoito -- to take a 36-29 lead it never relinquished.

 

DiGennaro scored 12 of her game-high 19 in the second half, many benefiting on the back end after Drury steals out of the press.

 

“If everything works out correctly, when you’re playing a 1-2-2 like that, the girl who is up top, who would be Brooke today, should get easy lay-ups out of it, or at least easy shots, because once we get steals, we’re immediately attacking,” Downey said. “Whenever we press, we emphasize lay-ups. If you don’t have a lay-up, pull it out and run an offense.

 

“It just happens that we got a lot of easy lay-ups today.”

 

Drury goes to Lee with a four-game winning streak on Monday.

 

Monument Mountain will look to snap a four-game skid when it hosts Taconic on Monday.