THE NRHS girls’ basketball team celebrates their round one road trip win over Pittsfield. The Hornets fell to No. 2 St. Mary’s in the second round. (NRHS Athletics Photo)
Fall to St. Mary’s after press time
By DAN NUNN
PITTSFIELD — On Thursday the No. 18 seed NRHS girls’ basketball team made the 146 mile trek to Pittsfield for their first ever MIAA Statewide Tournament game against No. 14 Pittsfield in the Round of 32. The long 3 hour bus ride did not stop the Hornets from securing a well earned 61-49 win.
Junior Faith Newton dominated with 26 points and 11 rebounds. Senior captain Riley Cullen picked up a double double with 14 points, 10 rebounds and sophomore Maggie Schultz stuffed the stat sheet with 8 points, 6 rebounds and 5 steals.
NRHS got many contributions in a total team effort; junior Brianne Slattery (5 points, 3 assists), senior captain Kayla Imbriano (4 points, 4 rebounds), senior captain Caitlin Riley (2 points, 1 rebound, 1 steal), junior Halee Torra (2 rebounds), junior Sami Patch (1 rebound).
“Faith Newton was outstanding all night in all facets,” said head coach Bob Romeo. “Riley Cullen was solid all night long and Maggie Schulz came off the bench to make plays all over the court.”
It was a game of wild momentum swings. After a closely contested 11-11 first quarter NRHS exploded with a 16-0 run in the second quarter. They went on to outscore the Generals 20-5 to take a 31-16 halftime lead. But Pittsfield refused to go away and had a massive scoring run of their own in the third quarter. They blitzed the Hornets with a 22-4 quarter and took a 38-35 lead heading into the final quarter.
The quarter break was exactly what the Hornets needed to regroup as they started with a 7-0 run to regain the lead at 42-38. Both teams traded points from there until a big three-point play from Newton pushed the lead to 52-45 with less than three minutes remaining.
Schultz hit a huge three pointer to extend the lead to eight, and Cullen converted a layup to push the lead to 10 with under two minutes left. From there, the girls made a few foul shots and completed the roller coaster win.
Sophomore Bella Cannalonga scored her only 2 points in that decisive fourth quarter, but “controlled the game all night with her ball handling against the Pittsfield pressure,” according to Romeo finishing with 9 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals.
Romeo praised his teams never say die attitude.
“That third quarter was about as rough a quarter we have absorbed all season. We got away from what worked so well for us in the second quarter and Pittsfield was able to dictate the tempo in that third quarter. It could have made for a long bus ride home, but the team banded together and made the plays they needed to make in that final quarter.”
The Hornets fell to No. 2 St. Mary’s 80-56 in the Sweet 16 on Monday night. A full story will appear next week.