Best in the State: Lady Rockets Return Home Champions

The Lady Rockets shot past the CMass Champion Tyngsboro Tigers in the second half to earn a 48-27 victory in the Massachusetts Division II State Championship Game Saturday at Worcester’s DCU Center.

The ladies completed a perfect 25-0 season and return home as champions—the first girls basketball team in the history of the school to do so.

“This means everything,” said Olivia Healy about Reading’s title. “We’re a family, and to know that we got this far together, it’s unbelievable. We all are collective in this, and just to stand here and look at this trophy and these medals, is the biggest accomplishment for all of us and our hard work.” 

For 14-year Reading head coach Kim Penney, the emotion of the moment was unable to be hidden.

“This has been one of the goals of our program,” she said, visibly affected. “And we finally did it with this great group of kids. I love them... It’s awesome. We had a lot of alumni in the crowd, a lot of people who've played for us over the years that feel like they’ve won it today with this group of girls, because we are a family. The past week or so has been an emotional roller-coaster, it hasn’t really set in yet.”

Penney continued to say how pleased she was to win with her current coaching staff, especially Jim DeBenedictis, who has been with her for all 14 years at RMHS.

Junior guard Healy led the way for the Lady Rockets, and RMHS’ all-time leading scorer deposited a game-high 16 points and eight rebounds on the biggest stage she has ever played on, while senior Melissa DalPozzo chipped in with 13 points and 10 rebounds.

The Lady Rockets dominated on the glass. Something they knew they would need to do coming into the game to have success. Reading out-rebounded Tyngsboro 41-25 for the game. RMHS also won the turnover battle turning the ball over 19 times compared to the Tigers’ 24.

“Rebounding was so important,” she said. “We knew going in that we were taller and bigger than them. That’s one of the things coach Penney talks about all the time... if you win on the boards, you win the game.”

Despite playing a team that won just eight games last year, and over which they owned a noticeable height advantage, Reading’s path to glory was never free of obstruction and a scrappy Tyngsboro squad caused Reading’s ball-handlers fits early on, creating five turnovers in the process.

“They played tough defense and we were kind of off in the first half,” said Penney. “But we got it together again, we’ve been doing it all year... [Tyngsboro] can all shoot threes, and we knew that. Closing out, we didn’t do as well as we could have in the first half, and we adjusted and did a much better job in the second half.”

The Tigers trailed just 10-9 after the opening frame. The lead would have been greater, but, perhaps in observance of St. Patrick’s Day, the Reading player with the most Irish-sounding name on the roster—Siobhan O’Sullivan—put in some solid minutes early for the Lady Rockets. O’Sullivan deposited her only four points of the game on back-to-back Reading possessions, turning a 9-6 deficit into a slight lead.

“I was put in to play defense, but when the ball comes to me, I’m going to score,” said O’Sullivan. “It was just unbelievable; It’s just amazing to be on the floor and be able to do something. I love being there and I live for these games.”

Once the early title game jitters wore off, the Lady Rockets were able to put some separation between themselves and Tyngsboro, thanks to their withering defensive pressure, which caused the Tigers no end of frustration.

“That wasn’t the way we play,” Healy said about her team’s early nerves. “We’ve come out really slow the last couple of games and we were just kind of like ‘let’s go in and get it done.’ That relentlessness builds us up for the second half and the second quarter.”

Reading led 21-12 at the half.

“At first it was a little nerve-wracking,” said O’Brien about the early struggles. “We knew we had to pick up our defense. [At halftime] coach just said she had no doubt we were going to win this game, but we have to pick it up and play our defense.”

Any lingering doubts over the outcome of this contest, no matter how optimistic or baseless, were put to rest by the Lady Rockets during the second half, as they reeled off a 27-7 run that effectively ended the game and lasted until Penney pulled the starters to a rousing ovation by the RMHS fan section with just under four minutes left in the game.

For his part, Tyngsboro head coach Mike Crowley—who spent 16 years on the sidelines at Lowell High—gave credit were it was due, acknowledging that Reading High is one of the top teams in the state.

“I think they are an amazing team,” said Crowley following the game. “They have always played good defense under [coach Penney] and now they have five scorers out on the floor. They are right up there with Andover. Best two teams in the state, no doubt about it.”

Healy and company will certainly be taking time to relish the moment, and no doubt will return home to a well-deserved hero’s welcome. 

“It’s a little weird knowing that it’s over,” said Healy. “But we played to the very last day, and that was our goal. To play as long as we possibly could. To know that we got that done, and we are going to stay together as a family right now and have a great night tonight and just send our seniors off on a positive note.”

And why not. As far as Division II girls hoops goes, to borrow a phrase from ex-Malden Catholic hockey coach Chris Serino, the Lady Rockets were the best “from box-to-wire.”

No one can ever take that away from them.

Check out our live blog for more details from the game.