GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. -- Natalie Lewis scored 26 points, including 11 in a decisive third quarter, Saturday to lead the Monument Mountain girls basketball team to a 59-43 win over Drury.
But Lewis did not do it alone.
Lewis' game-high five 3-pointers were important on the scoreboard and important for what they did for the rest of the Spartans' offense, coach John Perreault said.
"That opens everything up," Perreault said of outside shooting from Lewis. "That allows us to go inside. It opens up Kayleigh [Davis]. It opens up Shelby [Birnhak].
"At the end of the day, Shelby Birnhak played a huge game coming off the bench for what were really her first big varsity minutes. Polly [Geddes] came in that fourth quarter and really helped defensively, got some good rebounds, had that reverse. It was everybody but the captains today; I expect that from [the captains]. But it was everybody else. That was a good team win for us."
Davis notched a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds, and Alex Tenney scored 10.
Geddes and Birnhak each pulled down 10 boards in the win.
"With a lot of our recent seniors from last year graduating, our underclassmen are really stepping up and playing huge minutes after playing on JV last year," Lewis said. "I'm really, really proud of them. We wouldn't have been able to get it done without them."
Davis was a big factor early, scoring six points in a 12-5 Monument Mountain run to open the game.
But Drury's Brooke Bishop (eight points, 12 rebounds) hit a pair of free throws after being fouled in transition to spark a 6-0 spurt to the end of the quarter.
And a second quarter that started with Monument Mountain up, 12-11, featured nine lead changes as the teams went blow-for-blow before the Blue Devils went into the locker room ahead, 27-26.
Alyssa Russell scored nine of her team-high 15 points in that second quarter, including a 3-pointer late to give the Blue Devils the one-point edge at half-time.
One key for Drury early on was its full-court press, which gave the Spartans fits at times.
"It was a little bit of a shock at first," Lewis said. "We don't really know what to do with it when they put it on us right away. ... But after a few runs, we saw the gaps, and we were able to seep into those gaps."
It was still a one-possession game when Russell scored in the post midway through the third quarter to get Drury within two points at 39-37.
But Monument Mountain went on a 7-2 run that featured a Lewis 3-pointer to end the quarter and head to the fourth with a 46-39 lead.
Then, things really went off the rails for the Blue Devils, who watched the Spartans run off 13 straight points to open the fourth as Monument put the game out of reach at 59-39 with about four minutes left to play.
"The biggest thing you'll ever find with me as a coach is I talk about mental toughness," Drury coach Ian Downey said. "You're never going to play a perfect game. You're going to miss shots. You're going to turn the ball over. You're going to mess something up. But then, what do you do to make up for that?
"Our last game against Belchertown, I felt we did a good job early on when things weren't going well to stay together as a team. In the third quarter [Saturday], I just felt like the fell apart. They started arguing with each other. They started moping. They weren't getting back on defense. So, when you have stuff like that happen, the floodgates started opening."
Lewis started the fourth quarter with a 3-pointer from the right wing to give Monument Mountain the first double-digit margin of the game and an assist on a Tenney 3 to get the decisive run going.
Monument Mountain (1-1) goes to Pittsfield on Tuesday.
Drury (1-1) is at the Springfield International Charter School on Monday.
