NORTH ADAMS, Mass.. — The Drury girls basketball team struggled Monday night against Springfield International Charter in a loss at home, 51-39.
It was a tough scoring night for Drury (6-9) as they failed to beat Springfield ICS for the second time this season. Springfield ICS dominated the glass early and often in this one giving Drury fits down low.
Alicia Mitchell had 13 points, all of which came inside the paint. Drury looked to double down on the post, but it wasn’t enough to stop her.
The Blue Devils trailed 13-5 after the first quarter, looking for any type of spark to begin the second. With some substitution changes and some much improved defense Drury was able to tighten things up on the defensive end and finally started to get some shots to fall.
“I thought we did a great job weathering the storm in the first quarter,” Drury coach Ian Downey said. “We were finally able to settle down and go into halftime only down seven. Unfortunately we just couldn’t get a shot to fall in the third. I can’t complain about the looks. We had plenty of opportunities to make a shot.”
Drury outscored the Bulldogs, 9-8, in the second quarter and looked to bring a little momentum into the half. Alyssa Russell knocked down a big 3 midway through the quarter to get things going for Drury and they were looking OK going into the break down seven. Alyssa Russell led all Drury scorers with 11 points. Brooke Bishop added seven.
The second half is where things started to get away from Drury as Springfield ICS came out of the break with a 12-0 run.
Drury’s struggles on the offensive end started again, as they took more than five minutes to find their first and only basket of the third quarter. It was this 12-0 run that deflated Drury of any chance of coming back. Careless turnovers only fueled the run from Springfield ICS and allowed the visitors to outscore Drury, 17-2, in the quarter.
“We need to find easy baskets against a good team that has a rim protector like they do,” Downey said of SICS. “It’s too hard to score in the half court against a team that has a player of Mitchell’s caliber guarding the lane.”
Drury has had its struggles in the past with Springfield ICS losing all four of their previous meetings, including an elite eight loss last year. This game was a little different as Drury failed to keep this close to have a fighting chance in the fourth quarter.
Drury has three games remaining and will need some work if they want to qualify for postseason play this year. That road will start on Thursday at home against Agawam.
