PITTSFIELD, Mass. – In a game that featured two monster runs, the Pittsfield girls basketball may have run out of steam.
Visiting North Reading responded to the Generals’ dominating third quarter with a 7-0 run to start the fourth, erasing a three-point deficit and sparking the Hornets to a 61-49 win in the first round of the Division 3 State Tournament on Thursday night.
Eighteenth-seeded North Reading used an 18-0 run in the second quarter to take a 15-point lead into half-time.
No. 15 Pittsfield (11-10) responded with a 22-4 run of its own in the third quarter to grab a 38-35 edge going to the last eight minutes of the game.
Pittsfield coach Joe Racicot said his team may have been a little spent going to the fourth.
“We knew that with all the energy they put in in the third quarter that the fourth quarter was going to be … more than interesting,” Racicot said.
“I give the kids a lot of credit. They had a lot of fight in them. A couple of baskets either way, and it could have been a different result. You can’t not like the effort.”
North Reading benefited from some early foul trouble among Pittsfield’s starters in the first half. It started when Randi Duquette picked up her second personal on the first possession of the second quarter.
“We had three starters who got in foul trouble in the second quarter, and obviously we dug a hole,” Racicot said. “But we climbed out of that hole, and we were in pretty good shape. Then they hit a couple of shots and took the wind out of our sails.”
Pittsfield came out with its second wind after absorbing a body blow from the Hornets in the second quarter.
Dezerea Powell got the second half surge going with a 3-pointer to get the deficit down to 31-19. Jamie Duquette then hit a pair of free throws on one trip and drove the baseline for a bucket moments later to get the margin down to single digits.
Jamie Duquette went on to score 10 points in the third quarter, which ended on a 3-pointer from Charlotte Goodnow to put Pittsfield up, 38-35.
North Reading’s Riley Cullen (14 points, nine rebounds) started the fourth by getting fouled in the post and hitting both her free throws to cut Pittsfield’s lead to one point.
Then it was Faith Newton’s turn. Newton (23 points, 11 rebounds) got fouled pulling down an offensive rebound and converted both ends of a one-and-one to give her team the lead for good at 39-38.
It was a four-point North Reading lead before Abigail Malumphy knocked down a corner 3 to make it 42-41.
The teams traded points, including two more Jamie Duquette baskets, before the Hornets got some breathing room on a conventional three-point play by Newton to open a 52-45 lead with less than three minutes remaining.
Maggie Schultz hit a triple for the visitors to make it an eight-point lead, and Cullen scored in the post to push the lead back to 10 with less than two minutes left.
Jamie Duquette finished with a team-high 21 points to go with 10 rebounds. Randi Duquette had eight points and 11 boards, and Malumphy had a team-high 12 rebounds.
All three of those Generals – and most of the Pittsfield roster – will be back next winter.
“Basically, we had one senior [Alyssa Potvin],” Racicot said. “The kids are coming back. And the group coming in has a lot of good players.
“The bottom line is: What these kids put together all season long, you can’t be prouder of them.”
