Hornets Eek Out Victory In Defensive Brawl

How one views Friday's girls' basketball matchup between Lynnfield and depends largely on whether one wants to look at it as a glass half full or a glass half empty.

For optimists, North Reading's 39-27 victory at Lynnfield was a defensive masterpiece while pessimists will just look at the multitude of missed shots on both sides. Lynnfield coach Pamela MacDonald was one of the optimists.

"If you have told me that was the score, I really would have thought we would have won," said MacDonald. "Offensively we just struggled, we had a bunch of young kids. "

Likewise, North Reading coach Karla Sullivan was also one of the optimists in attendance, and not just toward the defensive prowess on both sides, but also towards her club's response to Lynnfield's pressuring approach.

"I thought we played well, but Lynnfield gave us defensive trouble," said Sullivan "But we did a nice job keeping composed and working through it and we played a good game as well."

Even the only offensive bright spot on the evening, a half-court shot from Hornets center Kirsten Morrison that went in, turned out to be fruitless when the referees disallowed the shot, saying it left her hands fractions of a second before the buzzer.

Perhaps the most telling stat of the offensive futility on both sides came from starting Lynnfield point guard Jillian Fama. While she only scored five points compared to her 22 against Hamilton/Wenham earlier in the week, three of those points came from the free-throw line, as she was only 1-for-22 from the field, almost joining seven other players on both sides who took shots but went scoreless from the field.  

However, despite the shooting troubles, MacDonald believes it was just a bad night from the sophomore.

"She's a kid. It's going to happen," MacDonald said. "You live by the outside shot; you die by the outside shot. She was hot on Tuesday night, and if she hit a couple more of those tonight it's a different ball game," said MacDonald. "And it's also a more physical game at this level, and it was her first time coming up here."

And yet, Fama was only three points behind Lynnfield's leading scorer Kelsey Mancini, who accrued eight points on the night, all of which came during the first half.  

North Reading also found things slow-going on offense, with only junior Lauren Hebert going scoring double digits on the night at 11 points. However, Hebert's performance, along with eight-point contributions from co-captains Morrison and Emily Welch and was enough to bring the Hornets some redemption after a .

North Reading (1-1) will hope to have a similarly spectacular night on defense as they travel home to face Hamilton/Wenham on Tuesday before heading to Manchester-Essex to finish up the week on Thursday.