HIGH-SCHOOL

South Sectional girls title just not in the Cards

Glen Farley
Cardinal Spellman's Cori O'Kane dribbles past Archbishop Williams defender Christine Duffy.

With junior Alyssa Schlehuber burying three 3-pointers in a little more than five minutes, the Cardinal Spellman girls’ basketball team shot out to a quick 10-point lead in Saturday’s MIAA Div. 3 South Sectional championship game with Archbishop Williams.

Then the mighty Casey struck back.

“She’s a gunner,” Spellman coach Pat Lamb said after senior Casey Capello’s 25 points, including 18 in the second half, sparked the fifth-seeded Bishops (20-2) to their second straight sectional title with a 60-45 win over the second-seeded Cardinals (22-2) at UMass-Boston. “If she can get it off, it’s going off, and when it’s going in it looks good. And it was going in.”

The Hanover resident single-handedly outscored Spellman, 14-9, in a third quarter that saw the Bishops build an insurmountable nine-point lead as they advanced to a state semifinal-round date with North champion Pentucket (21-2) at 4:15 Tuesday afternoon at the TD Banknorth Garden.

“We went away from what got us the lead,” said Lamb. “We started taking hurried jump shots. I’m calling plays to get (Schlehuber) the ball and we were taking some other questionable shots. You take a quick shot, long rebound, and our team speed is limited and they’re just off to the races.

“It was a 3-on-1 drill, it seemed like almost the whole second quarter and a lot in the second half,” Lamb added. “No excuses whatsoever, but that’s where losing Jade hurts because I thought she kept things under control with (Archbishop Williams senior guard Christine) Duffy the first two games.”

Spellman senior Jade Santos was lost for the season when she suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament and partially torn meniscus in her right knee in the Cardinals’ only other loss, a 53-45 setback in a Catholic Central League game at Archbishop Williams on Feb. 14.

“It would have been a completely different game if she was there,” Archbishop Williams coach Jim Bancroft agreed. “This year, she was on Duffy and she played Duffy really tough and it took us a while to adjust to it. It took us out of our offense a little bit. So that’s got to hurt.”

The pain on Saturday was inflicted by Capello, who fed off the Bishops’ running game to break loose in the second half as the defending state champions eliminated the Cardinals from the tournament for the second straight year.

“I fully, fully, fully tip my hat to Archies,” said Lamb. “They were clearly the better team today. We get up 10 points on them and then — boom — they get a two-point lead at the half.

“They just play with some passion out there. Our kids do as well, but with their team speed and athleticism they’re just flying down the court. We’re trying to get back, but…”

With Schlehuber en route to a 17-point game, Spellman seized a 19-9 lead before settling for a 19-11 advantage at the end of the first quarter.

Baskets by junior forward Hayley Knowles and senior guard Cori O’Kane were all the Cardinals had to show for a second quarter in which they were outscored, 14-4, sending the Bishops into the break holding a 25-23.

Senior guard Jill LaFond came off the bench and asserted herself in that half, turning in some stellar defense and scoring the last six points to outscore the Cardinals in the second quarter.

After Capello took control in the third quarter, the Cardinals were never able to get any closer than six in the fourth. The last time Spellman closed to within six occurred when O’Kane, who had dislocated the pinky finger on her left hand in the third quarter, sank the front end of a one-and-one to make it 44-38.

At that point, however, a 3-pointer by senior guard Courtney McNamara and an inside basket by junior forward Alex Knowles quickly pushed that lead into double figures (49-38) with 4:55 to play and the Bishops were never seriously threatened down the stretch.

Cardinal Spellman forward Reilly Poirier battles Valerie Driscoll of Archbishop Williams under the offensive boards.