Darien Girls Basketball Rolls Over McMahon

With three regular-season games remaining entering Friday, the Darien girls basketball team needed at least two wins to qualify for the FCIAC playoffs – and then still might need some help from other teams.

They Blue Wave earned one of those wins on Friday night when they defeated Brien McMahon 40-32 in Darien.

Coach Gary Peterson put this one in "a win is a win" category, then paused to find the right words to describe the game.

It was a sloppy, but hard-fought game in which bodies hit the deck from the opening tip to the final horn. It was arguably the most physical game of the year as both teams were guilty of dropped passes and missed layups.

Meg Marren and Kate Bushell scored 30 of the Wave's 40 points. Bushell did her best work in the first half when she scored eight of her nine points. Marren did most of her damage in the second half with 13 of her game -high 21 points.

The Wave (9-7, 11-7) played without guard and playmaker Nicole Buch, who was recuperating from a mouth injury sustained in the St. Joseph game on Tuesday.

 "I knew we'd miss her but I didn't know we'd miss her this much," Peterson said.

McMahon came into the game with a 4-11 conference record and no chance of making the playoffs, but it was aggressive on defense and caused a number of Wave turnovers .

McMahon led 9-6 after one quarter, but Darien showed signs of life when the Blue Wave took an 18-15 lead with under a minute remaining until the break. They finished the half with eight baskets – all of them from Marren and Bushell.

But what the Wave lacked in ballhandling and shooting accuracy, they made up for with hustle and hard work.

Marren was starting to connect with some drives to the basket in the third quarter and the home team stretched their lead to seven points after three.

In the fourth quarter, the Wave got some fastbreaks, which resulted in layups.

They made it 40-32 when Lesley Yuen fed Marren for an easy basket off the break and an eight-point lead with under two minutes remaining.

"We won this one with hustle," Bushell said. "We sure missed Nicole (Buch) though."

Bushell credited McMahon with coming out strong,"especially for a team that was out of the playoffs with only four wins."

Darien plays at Danbury next Monday, then concludes the regular season at home against Westhill on Wednesday.