'Mature' Mount Everett Withstands Lenox Rally
LENOX, Mass. -- For a few years, it has been no secret to opposing coaches that the key to stopping Mount Everett’s girls was containing Gwendolyn Carpenter.
The revelation this winter is that the Eagles can play when the senior and school’s all-time leading scorer is unavailable.
“You’ve gotta credit Mount Everett because that was a hard, physical game,” Lenox coach Mike Nykorchuck said Friday after the Eagles edged his Millionaires, 40-36. “Gwen got into foul trouble in the third quarter. They played five minutes without Gwen, and they held their own.
“Last year, Gwen got in foul trouble in the second quarter, and went on a 14-0 run to tie it up in the second quarter. Give those other kids a ton of credit. Gwen always gets the credit, and she probably should in this game, but you’ve got to credit those other kids who withstood. You notice, I called a timeout when she went out, and we went all-out pressure, and they withstood.”
Mount Everett, which built a double-digit lead with a 14-0 second-quarter run of its own on Friday, was able to stay ahead by double digits until early in the fourth.
Lenox, which closed the third on a 6-0 run, opened the fourth with a 9-3 spurt to get within six at 35-29 when Nicole Gamberoni connected from the post with 4 minutes, 10 seconds left to play.
Mount Everett got a 3-pointer from Marion Devoti off a pass from Carpenter and another Devoti field goal on a jumper from the left wing off a pass from Madeline VonRuden to get back up by nine, 40-31, with 1:30 left.
With 1:00 on the clock, Gamberoni (game-high 19 points) picked up her fourth personal foul, but Lenox still had some fight left.
Sophie Patella (six points, 10 rebounds) hit a six-footer, and Tabor Paul hit a 3-pointer on a feed from Anna Najimy to get Lenox within four, but that was as close as the Millionaires could get.
Other than Gamberoni’s 19, it was a balanced attack from Lenox, which got points from six different players, including seventh-grader Grace Wiigington.
“We’re missing some scorers [due to injury], but I think I might have found a new person to put in the rotation with Grace Wigington,” Nykorchuck said. “That was her first varsity action ever, and she was in there at the end of the game. That says something. She was in there, she was making plays. I think you’ll see her in our rotation going forward.”
In addition to Carpenter’s team-high 16, the Eagles got nine from Devoti and six apiece from Madison Ullrich and Mackenzie Ullrich.
“The maturity level on the other kids has come a long way,” Mount Everett coach Scott Rote said. “They don’t panic as much when Gwen isn’t on the floor. Madison Ullrich -- she can play guard, she can play center, she can play power forward. When we don’t have Gwen, we always have her as a backup guard.
“VonRuden really started coming on today. The big thing was Devoti in the second half and the fourth quarter. She hit two or three big shots for us that really made a difference.”
Carpenter hit a couple of big 3s in a game-changing second quarter run.
Neither team could get much going offensively in a first quarter that ended in a 7-7 tie.
But with five minutes left in the first half, Carpenter connected in the post to give the Eagles an 11-10 lead they never surrendered.
Madison Ullrich hit a jumper from the baseline, and then scored on a feed from Carpenter to push the lead to 15-10. Then Carpenter knocked down her first triple, Madison Ullrich scored in the post, and Carpenter hit another 3 to make it 23-10.
Although Lenox was able to chip into that lead in the fourth, Mount Everett never let it get to a two-possession game until the closing seconds.
The Eagles (6-6) are at Mount Greylock on Tuesday.
Lenox (2-8) goes to Drury on Tuesday.