SHEFFIELD, Mass. – Easthampton’s Lauren Morse scored 30 points, and the visitors used a 24-2 run en route to a 54-25 win over Mount Everett on Thursday night.
Morse knocked down seven 3-pointers and had 19 points at half-time in leading her Eagles to a season sweep of the Mount Everett Eagles (3-8).
“She was hitting shots from 5 feet beyond the 3-point line,” Mount Everett coach Joshua King said. “She’s definitely a good shooter. I was telling the girls to get up on her, but, truly, how far can you extend your zone?”
Ness Bentley had three first-half 3-pointers for Easthampton, which scored 21 points in the last four minutes of the first quarter after Mount Everett grabbed an early 5-2 lead.
Morse started the decisive run by driving the baseline and getting to the foul line with 3 minutes, 43 seconds left in the quarter. She hit both foul shots to get her team within a point at 5-4.
The next time down the court, Morse hit a triple to give Easthampton its first lead. And after the visitors stole the ball out of their full court press, Bentley hit a 3 to make it 10-5.
Bently closed the first quarter with a 3 to make it 23-7, and Morse opened the second quarter with another make from beyond the arc to give Easthampton a 19-point lead after the 24-2 run.
Emma Goewey scored twice in the post – the second time an and-one – to trim the deficit down to 14, and that is where things stood at half-time.
“We missed a lot of shots in the first half,” King said. “Things weren’t falling for us. If a couple of those go in, maybe that half-time lead might be 10 or eight.”
Instead, Easthampton rolled into the second half with a 12-3 third quarter to put the game out of reach.
Maria Belfakih scored 11 points for Easthampton.
Emily Steuernagle and Julia Devoti scored four apiece for Mount Everett.
In addition to Easthampton’s 10 3-pointers, its full-court pressure defense was the key to victory. Thirteen of Mount Everett’s 28 turnovers came directly off the press.
“We probably had more turnovers than we had points,” King said. “Any time you have those kinds of nights, it’s going to be very hard to be successful unless the other team is having the same problems. But they weren’t.
“We should be used to [the press] by now. We’ve almost played everybody [in the Franklin West] twice. Being in this new league, that’s what everyone is going to try to do. And you can’t blame them if we can’t handle it.”
Mount Everett continues in league play on Tuesday when it visits Lee.
