The NEPSAC tournament got underway at Nobles Wednesday afternoon for the girls basketball team as they continued their winning ways by registering their ninth win in a row over an undersized Loomis Chaffee squad.
The 56-29 win for the Bulldogs earned them a date on the road with New Hampton Prep on Friday in the second round of the Class A tournament.
The Bulldogs first basket of the game was a recurring theme throughout when senior Nora Kelly found a wide-open Lauren Taiclet under the basket for two. Taiclet scored again on an inbounds pass to make it 6-0, when Loomis Chaffee was forced to use their first timeout.
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Loomis Chaffee's offense rested in the hands of their guards especially A’lece Mark who had 12 points, but was harassed by the aggressive man-to-man coverage by the Nobles backcourt of Lauren Dillon and Kelly.
What made the defense so effective was that the Nobles high post players, either Taiclet or Karly Finison, played in a high post-helping zone that kept the Loomis Chaffee guards out of the paint and made it difficulty for their wings to shoot 3-pointers.
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“Karly and I had to think defensively,” said Taiclet after the game.
Defense has been the hallmark of this team all year and the true stood out for the Bulldogs who held their opponent to two points in the first seven minutes.
Loomis Chaffee retaliated by applying a full-court press that slowed down the Nobles offense in the first half.
Chloe Alexander and Brianna Malanga hit a pair of 3s late in the first half to close the Nobles lead to 16-12. But freshamn Kate Kerrigan answered with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer of her own to give the Bulldogs a 19-12 lead at the half.
Kerrigan started off the second half with a lay-up off a steal while Mark added a pair of buckets including a coast-to-coast lay-up that closed the gap to 21-16.
It looked as if Mark was on the verge of taking over the game with her ability to penetrate, yet Kerrigan kept getting to the basket herself, finding her way to the hole for a three-point play that put Nobles up 28-17.
“Kerrigan put us on her back, got us back in rhythm,” said head coach Alex Gallagher, following the win.
Taiclet added a bucket underneath to make it 30-19 for the Bulldogs, and Taiclet took over from there, scoring 20 of her 24 points in the second half.
The game was all but over when the Bulldogs broke out on a fast break with Dillon leading the way who found Taiclet running the floor with a beautiful bounce pass to make it 52-27 with 3:08 left.
“In the second half we did a great job breaking the press especially Claire Greene and Kelly were great,” added Gallagher.
