Shorthanded Girls Basketball Overpowered By Pentucket, Push Toward Possible Postseason Berth

When you have as many players in street clothes as you do in uniform obviously your prospects aren’t looking their best.

And if that wasn’t daunting enough for the girls basketball team Friday night, the Sachems of Pentucket, in their dark green uniforms, were staring down the home team.

Pentucket is atop the Cape Ann League Div. 1 standings with a perfect 10-0 mark. And with the win the Sachems are now 14-4 overall.

Despite the immense hurdles the Generals fought to the end in their 67-37 loss. Hamilton-Wenham is now 7-9. It needs to win its final two games of the season – at Ipswich and Amesbury – in order to qualify for the tournament.

“We had four starters out with injuries, but I thought we still did a real nice job,” said coach Bill Burridge, who had to call up Rae Sanchez from junior varsity just to have two substitutes on the bench. “I thought we did a good job of hustling. And everyone scored.”

The team recognized the seniors prior to the game. Even though Hamilton-Wenham only has two on the roster – Sophie Prince and Victoria Tansey – they did receive their flowers and get a picture with their parents in uniform.

Also not in uniform were fellow starters Jen Cook and Taylor Morong, as well as Carolyn Cook.

Pentucket came out strong, pressing from the opening tap. They caused countless turnovers by the young Generals, racing to a 10-point lead at the end of the first quarter, never looking back.

A Pentucket assistant coach said the Sachems weren’t taking advantage of the inexperienced and shorthanded hosts. It is a tactic they often use in order to set the tempo of the game and get some early points.

The lead was stretched to 33-9 at the half and then both coaches liberally subbed in players.

As a result Sanchez was able to lead the Generals with 7 points, the same total for junior Cassandra Fibbe and sophomore Samantha Charette. Sophomore Haylie Willis scored 6 and Catherine Ecker chipped in with 5.

“The most important thing was the younger kids got a lot of experience and really stepped up,” said Burridge.

He also pointed out that Suzanne Rose did a nice job of running the offense and Fibbe, the lone regular starter to play, had a strong game.

Burridge was also positive about his team’s chances of capturing its final two games of the season. The Generals beat Amesbury in the teams’ first meeting, and even though Ipswich is strong he felt his team had it in them to make it a contest, especially since the four starters should be back from injury.

“It’s always disappointing if we don’t make the playoffs,” he said. “But we’ll take our chances and hope we can come out on top.”