CHESHIRE, Mass. -- Noelle Furlong scored a game-high 17 points, and Maria Gamberoni had 10 steals Saturday as the Wahconah girls basketball team beat Quabbin, 51-25, at the Coaches Vs. Cancer Showcase.
Furlong scored 10 points in the second quarter to help Wahconah open up a 16-point half-time lead.
Morgan Maruauswski lit up the scoreboard in the second half, scoring 11 of her 13 points to put the game away.
"Morgan and Noelle were hot in the game, and the great thing about it was we found the hot player," Wahconah coach Liz Kay said. "I think sometimes we fail to recognize when someone's getting hot, and tonight, we did a really good job of saying, 'Hey, you're on fire. Keep firing it up.' "
Gamberoni did the bulk of the distributing for Wahconah, adding a half dozen assists to go with her steals, eight points and eight rebounds.
In the second quarter, she recognized Furlong was heating up, and junior swing hit two of her three 3-pointers in the period.
Kay said that she was glad to see Furlong taking her shot.
"When she's aggressive, she could be the best player in the county when she decides to be," Kay said. "But she's also the nicest kid in the world. So sometimes she defers a bit too much.
"Obviously, that's a strange conversation to have: to tell somebody to be a little more selfish. But that's been a pivotal discussion for us this year. She's stepped up to be more aggressive."
After a slow start offensively for both teams, it was 9-4, Wahconah after one quarter.
Furlong kicked off the second by connecting from the top of the key and igniting a 15-4 Wahconah run that ended with her second 3-pointer of the spurt.
It was a 16-point margin at half-time, and Wahconah never looked back.
Partly that was due to Marauszwski finding her offense. Part of it was due to Wahconah's calling card: its defense.
"I'm most happy with the fact that the adjustments we made defensively in the second half were really good," Kay said. "I thought toward the end of the second quarter, they did a really nice job of getting a lot of paint touches.
"We really tried to limit that in the second half, and I think we did a good job."
Wahconah (9-2) goes to Pittsfield on Monday night for a Berkshire County North Division showdown.
