Sports
Tewksbury Girls Come Up Short In State Tournament
North Andover's defense is too much for Redmen in 32-16 loss.
A combination of youthful inexperience on the Tewksbury side and tenacious defense on the North Andover side led to an early exit from the MIAA Division 2 state tournament for the Thursday night in North Andover.
The Redmen failed to hit double digits in any of the game's four quarters and came out on the low end of a 32-16 score.
Tewksbury's 16 points represented its lowest offensive output of the year, and ended a strong finish to the 2010-2011 season on a down note.
Find out what's happening in Tewksburyfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
"We did nothing offensively to help ourselves tonight," said a disappointed afterward. "We just couldn't find a rhythm. We tried to set a lot of ball screens and get some penetration, but nothing worked. North Andover is a very strong defensive team."
Tewksbury managed just five first quarter points against the Scarlet Knights and trailed 10-5 after one period. North Andover held Tewksbury to its lowest scoring quarter of the season in the second period, as the Redmen mustered only two points and trailed, 19-7, at the half.
Find out what's happening in Tewksburyfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Things didn't get any better in the third period as Tewksbury came up with just three more points and trailed, 30-10, after three quarters.
"We're a young team, and it showed," Bradley said. "Turnovers hurt us. But to hold a team like (North Andover) to 32 points is a good defensive effort."
North Andover entered the tournament as the No. 2 seed in the Division 2 North Sectional bracket, having gone undefeated (14-0) in Cape Ann League play, The Scarlet Knights won the CAL Division 1 championship and finished 15-4 overall in the regular season, averaging 51 points per game in the process.
on the other hand, had won six of their final eight games to post a 7-13 record going into the tournament. They qualified based on the Sullivan Rule, which awarded the Tewksbury girls a state tournament berth based on their winning percentage against the two other MIAA Division 2 teams in the Merrimack Valley Conference.
Tewksbury started two freshmen, two sophomores and one senior in the game while North Andover started three seniors, a junior and a sophomore.
"You have to give Tewksbury's defense some credit," said North Andover coach Sue Breen. "They were scrappy and they held us to one shot at a time.
"It was a weird game," she added. "At times it felt like we were just gonna break it open but we never did."
Nor did the Redmen, but that didn't stop their coach from singing their praises after the season had ended.
"I'm proud of how hard these kids worked," Bradley said. "And I'm proud of the team for getting into this environment. This is where we want to be. This is what we're working toward."
Sophomore forward Nicole Chaet led Tewksbury with seven points while senior forward Kim Fairweather had four points. Senior guard Michelle Gavin and junior guard Sherri Liggiero had two points each and sophomore center Kelli Sugrue had one.
In addition to Gavin and Fairweather, seniors Jen Bowers, Marie Boisvert, Liz Connolly and Liz Marchand played their final games in a Tewksbury uniform.
