Tomahawks Girls B-Ball Team Earn Shot at the State Title

Forgive the girls’ basketball team if they seem a little more excited than usual over the next few days; opportunities like this don’t come along every year.
 
The third-seeded Tomahawks will have a shot at bringing home their first Central Mass. title since 1979 when they meet top-seeded Shrewsbury (19-3) on Saturday. Algonquin earned that opportunity with a 51-41 win over seventh-seeded Leominster Tuesday night in the Central Mass. Division 1 semifinals at Clark University’s Kneller Athletic Center.
 
A lot has changed in the 30-plus years since Algonquin (16-7) last brought home the hardware. The last time the program wore the crown the Tomahawks were a Division 2.
 
“Leominster is a team we know well," said Ron Jones, longtime Algonquin head coach. "This is the third time we’ve played them this year and we know they’re an athletic team who likes to run the floor and plays aggressive defense. They can really shoot the ball well and for the most part we were able to shut their shooters down and play good defense.”
 
The Tomahawks were paced by Emily Bourke’s 12 points. Hannah Lien added 11 points and Sarah Dahlstrom contributed 10 points in the win. Brianna Martinez led the Blue Devils with eight points.
 
The pesky Blue Devils hung tough for the entire first half and a portion of the third quarter, refusing to go away and let the Tomahawks run away with the contest.
 
The two squads were deadlocked at 10 after one quarter. Algonquin grabbed a small advantage during the second quarter and enjoyed a slim 24-19 heading into the locker room. The Tomahawks were aided by 12 Leominster first half turnovers, eight of which came in the second quarter. Lien played a solid opening 16 minutes, tossing in six of her points during the first two quarters. Lien had some help from Amanda Faherty, who scored five of her seven points before the halftime buzzer.
 
During the early minutes of the third quarter, Leominster was able to keep it close. Trailing 26-19 the Blue Devils answered with six of the next eight points to close within a single possession, 28-25 with just less than three minutes remaining. Unfortunately for Leominster fans Algonquin responded in a big way, ending the stanza with an 8-2 run to push the Tomahawks lead up to nine points, 36-27 after three quarters.
 
During the final eight minutes of action, the Blue Devils slowly watched the game slip away as Algonquin cranked up the defensive pressure and in turn forced Leominster into many costly turnovers which resulted in easy buckets at the other end of the floor. Leominster finished the game with 32 turnovers.  
 
Saturday night’s contest will be held at Fitchburg State University Recreation Center.