Mauer 3s Key Millionaires' Comeback in State Tourney Win
LENOX, Mass. -- Alivia Mauer knocked down three 3-pointers in the fourth quarter Saturday as the Lenox girls basketball team rallied from a 10-point deficit to earn a 48-45 win over Hull in the Division 5 State Tournament.
Mauer finished with a team-high 16 points with four second-half 3s.
Two of them came at the end of a 13-1 run to open the fourth quarter and take a 44-42 lead with just more than 2 minutes left to play.
Kelly Nicotra and Jocelyn Fairfield each scored nine points, and Kelsey Kirchner scored eight for the 13th-seeded Millionaires (17-5), who won for the eighth time in nine games.
Lenox will have a chance to avenge the one loss in that stretch on Tuesday when it heads to Cheshire to take on No. 4 Hoosac Valley in the Sweet 16. The Hurricanes beat Lenox in last week's Western Massachusetts Class D final.
Mauer had just four points with 1:40 left in the third quarter, when she knocked down her first 3 coming out of a Lenox timeout.
She said the triple got her going.
"It's like, yeah, let's hit another one, let's hit another one, let's keep going," Mauer said.
"We've got to play as a team. We've always got to play as a team. We won't be able to score, we won't be able to make it down the court if we don't play together as a group. We're nothing without the team."
Lenox coach Nicole Patella was not surprised to see Mauer get hot from behind the arc.
"She's a ball player year round," Patella said. "And that's what she does. I'm happy for her that they went in."
Not much was going down for either team in the early going, when the Pirates (7-13) and Millionaires combined for 30 first-half turnovers.
Hull survived a rugged first quarter with a 13-7 lead, but the Millionaires posted their first comeback of the night, charging back to get within a point, 20-19, at half-time after Fairfield scored five, including the last four points of the half on a putback and a pair of made free throws.
Patella said her team was a little rusty at the outset.
"We were off the whole week," she said. "The last game we played was Hoosac in the Western Mass finals. We were supposed to play this game yesterday. [Hull] didn't want to play us yesterday.
"Not playing in a week isn't good for us. There's only so much you can do practice wise."
Hull got hot from behind the arc in the third quarter, hitting three 3-pointers and getting seven points from Lucy Peters (team-high 11 points) to stretch its lead to 41-31.
Patella said the talk in the huddle at the end of the third quarter was pretty simple.
"We have eight minutes to turn this game around or our season is over, basically," she said.
Her players got the message.
Lenox started the fourth with seven straight points.
Kirchner scored six straight, putting back a rebound with 4:45 on the clock to make it 41-37 and force Hull to call timeout.
The teams then traded free throws to make it 42-38 with 3:43 left to play.
After an exchange of turnovers, Mauer took a pass from Chloe Pasenios and nailed a deep 3-pointer to get her team within one, 42-41.
Lenox forced two more Hull turnovers before Mauer hit another three from the same spot to give the Millionaires their first lead since 3-0 with two minutes left to play.
The Pirates settled down, made a few stops and hit three free throws to go up, 45-44, with 1:27 left on the clock.
But with 41 seconds left, Fairfield found Mauer open on the left wing, and she hit another triple to put Lenox ahead, 47-45.
Lenox's defense forced another turnover to get the ball in Fairfield's hands with 34 seconds left, and she drew a foul. She hit the first to give her team a three-point cushion.
Hull's Emily Punchard rebounded a miss on the second free throw, and the Pirates ended up inbounding the ball 90 feet from the basket with 31.1 seconds on the clock.
Hull got the ball up against Lenox's press and ended up with a 3-pointer from the top of the key that fell short. The Pirates got the rebound and worked it back out to the top of the key, but Fairfield blocked a desperation shot with a couple of seconds left. Kirchner grabbed the loose ball, and time ran out.
The victory sends Lenox into the Round of 16 with a chance to reach the state quarter-finals. To get there, it will have to get through the 2022 state finalists from up the road.
"It comes down to who wants it more," Patella said of the matchup with Hoosac Valley. "Who's going to rebound? Who's going to score? Who's going to play the better defense?"
Mauer is expecting another battle.
"It won't be an easy game, but we've just got to keep playing the way we play," she said. "Hopefully, we'll come out with a win."