NEWPORT, N.H. – Both the Newport and Hopkinton girls had the jitters in the early going as neither team could find their shot in the season opener for both clubs. The Hawks found their legs in the second quarter while the Tigers continued to struggle, and that led to a hole that Newport couldn’t climb out of, as they fell to last year’s championship game runners-up 54-37 on Friday.
“We knew that we needed to slow Newport down and I think we did a pretty good job of that tonight,” said Hopkinton coach Pat Roye after the game.
Not only did Hopkinton slow Newport down but they held them scoreless for a 7-minute stretch while pouring in 22 second quarter points to turn a 7-6 first quarter lead into a 16-point advantage at the half.
“We dug a big hole tonight with a combination of turnovers, poor foul shooting, foul trouble and cold shooting,” said Newport head coach Ross Dole after the game.
Eliza Bates and Alyssa Burr both drained three pointers early in the game but by the time Burr hit a free throw for Newport’s next point, Hopkinton had run off 13-straight points. Alexis Quimby and Riely Skarin chipped in with buckets but the visitors had a commanding 29-13 lead at the break.
“We weren’t ready for the speed of Hopkinton but we’ll learn from this and improve going forward,” said Selena Coronis after the game.
The Hawks pressured the ball up and down the court and limited the Newport fast break opportunities in the first half, but Newport opened the start of the second half with back to back hoops from Bates to slice the lead down to 12 points.
The Hawks began to go to work in the paint as Katie Meserve and Bree Hamilton out-muscled the Newport defenders. Meserve would drop in 8 points in the final quarter as Hopkinton began to stretch the lead. Coronis, Morgan Roberts and Greysan Beaulieu all would find the bottom of the net for Newport late but Hopkinton stalled away the game for a 54-37 win.
Bates would lead Newport with 9 points followed by Beaulieu and Burr with 6 points each while Coronis and Quimby chipped in with 5 points each. Newport shot only 3-of-13 from the charity stripe tonight.
Newport will host Mascoma on Tuesday.
In JV action, Erin Seagrave led Newport with 7 points while Dalyce Meunier and Alicia Urista each scored 4 points as the Tigers fell to the Hawks 31-20.
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