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Feehan girls' hoop lights out



Attleboro High's Jenna Costa knocks the ball away from Bishop Feehan's Amy Lepley. (Staff photo by MARTIN GAVIN)




ATTLEBORO - They may be having problems with the electrical wiring at Bishop Feehan High School, but the Feehan girls' basketball team hasn't had a shortage of energy this season.

Scoring 23 unanswered points from late in the first quarter to early in the third - and yes, that means that Attleboro High was shut out in the second quarter - the Shamrocks raced to their 12th win without a loss Saturday night, 58-32 over the Bombardiers.

The non-league game was switched to Attleboro High because of the ongoing electrical-system repairs at Feehan, but there was no disruption whatsoever in the intensity of the defense that enabled the Shamrocks to keep Attleboro off the scoreboard for eight minutes and 53 seconds. During the second quarter alone, the harried Bombardiers shot 0-for-12 from the field.

"Even when they got good looks, you could see they were rushing their shots because they figured, 'I'd better get this off or I'll never get it off,'" said Feehan coach Mike Deady. "People often think we're trying to steal the ball, but we're doing it to increase the tempo, and generally, it works."

Increasing the tempo by forcing turnovers and creating scoring opportunities in transition were important tactics for the Shamrocks, who had been frustrated early in the game by the Bombardiers' attempts to keep the pace more to their liking.
"We tried to slow the tempo down in that first quarter, and it worked probably for the first six or seven minutes," AHS coach Mike Riley said. "But they adapted to it, and that was that."

Indeed, Attleboro led 5-4 with 4:17 left in the opening quarter on a basket by Kelci Keene off Jenna Costa's feed. The Shamrocks scrapped to score the next five points, and the lead was still just five (13-8) when Morgan Lindberg nailed a three-pointer off Amy Lepley's pass just before the buzzer.

That was the first salvo fired in the 23-0 run, but it didn't really pick up steam until, with 3:33 left in the second quarter, Lepley stole the ball at halfcourt and raced in for a score. In rapid-fire succession after that, Kacie Plakias nailed a three, Jenna Roncarati sank one free throw and Emma Creeden put in the rebound of the second, Lepley scored on another steal and then buried a three, and Christina Perez finished off the run with a free throw (for a 36-8 halftime lead) from being fouled as time expired.

"They did a great job with the traps," Riley said. "We didn't respond the way we probably should have."

The Shamrock Express hit a small speed bump in the third quarter, being outscored 6-2 in the first four minutes.

"As well as we played in the second quarter, we didn't play anywhere near as well in the third," said Deady, whose team finally shook off its malaise on the strength of two Lepley baskets and two free throws by Kerin DeGirolamo to lead 45-23 entering the final quarter. Lepley threw in two more baskets in the early going before taking a seat for the last four minutes.

Lauren Beland led Attleboro with 10 points, and Keene added seven points, six rebounds and five assists. The Bombardiers are now 4-8, but are still 3-1 in the Old Colony League and enter Friday's game at Barnstable still looking to earn an MIAA Division 1-South tournament berth by finishing second in the league.

Lepley, a junior, brought her career scoring total to 650 with a 24-point performance (9-15 FG, 5-8 FT), adding a game-high 12 rebounds, two assists and two blocked shots. Roncarati pulled down 11 of Feehan's 45 rebounds and dished out four assists. Eleven of the 13 Shamrocks scored points, shooting 40.8 percent (20-49) from the field.

The Shamrocks hope to entertain Durfee in a non-leaguer on Tuesday, electricity permitting.


 


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