SUNAPEE — After splitting a pair of games during the regular season, the Mount Royal girls tripped up the Mules, 38-33 in the opening round of the Division IV playoffs on Tuesday at the St. Joseph Center.
On Dec. 21, the Knights nipped Newmarket at home, 42-40, while dropping a 23-22 decision at Newmarket on Jan. 12.
On Tuesday night, however, it was the Knights’ turn to win again.
Mount Royal will travel to No. 2 Hinsdale Friday night for a quarterfinal match. During the regular season the Pacers tripped up the Knights twice, 58-36 at Sunapee on Jan. 17 and 44-34 at Hinsdale on Feb. 13.
Hinsdale finished its season at 17-1 while Mount Royal was 13-5. Hinsdale’s only regular-season loss came in its season opener at Colebrook, 15-3, by a score of 56-39. Since that contest on Dec. 8 the Pacers have ripped off 17 straight victories.
In its tournament opener Tuesday night Hinsdale tripped up 6-12 Canaan-Pittsburg, 47-23.
Mount Royal Coach Derek Tremblay was pleased with the performance turned in by his team.
“As expected, the game was hotly contested on the defensive end. The Knights got contributions from all five starters,” he related.
Tremblay didn’t have any problems recapping the Mount Royal scoring attack following the game.
Jactina Hogan hit some dagger 3-pointers while the defense focused elsewhere, leading the Knights with 13 points. Sophie Larose was unstoppable on the boards and around the bucket, finishing with a double-double (12 points, 13 rebounds). Alexis Matte scored 7 points; Erin Diebold notched 4 timely points, and pulled down 9 rebounds, while Amy Alterisio played tenacious defense and chipped in a bucket.
The Knights connected on 13 of 42 field goal attempts (30 percent) while Hinsdale was 14 for 48 (29 percent). From 3-point range Mount Royal was 3 of 8 while Hinsdale hit 4 of 10. Mount Royal won the rebounding battle, 30-24.
Newmarket took a 6-3 lead in the opening period with Mount Royal taking the second period, 15-14 and the third, 10-8 to knot the account at the end of three periods, 28-28. The Royals outscored the Pacers in the final stanza, 10-5, for the victory.
“The girls will be looking to discover a little more about themselves Friday night,” Tremblay said of the encounter with Hinsdale.
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