SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Aiden Champney scored 12 points, and the McCann Tech girls basketball team Tuesday overcame an unusual strategy by its opponent in a 36-24 win over Hampden Charter.

 

Alexis Lemanski scored eight, and Faith Brazeau and Madison Rougeau had five apiece in a balanced attack for the Hornets.

 

“In the second half I saw something I've never seen before in all my time coaching: They intentionally played defense on Faith [Brazeau] while on the offensive end of the floor, which I guess was designed to mess up our defense and cause even more confusion,” McCann Tech coach Justin Kratz said. “Faith was guarding a Hampden Charter player who would then play defense on Faith in return even though the Hampden Charter player was on offense.

 

“It was definitely intentional too because we stuck Faith in the post to see if we could get a three count on the girl ‘defending’ her, but the ‘defender’ kept stepping one foot out of the paint to avoid the 3-second penalty. Very strange and got us unsettled but credit the girls for keeping their composure and playing through it.”

 

McCann Tech (8-1) hosts Westfield Tech on Thursday.