By Christopher Shaban
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
CLAREMONT — Zahna Rice led the Cardinals with 15 points to a win over Hopkinton as Stevens hosted a tournament game for the first time since 2006.
With the Stevens cheerleaders tossing T-shirts into the balcony and a terrific crowd on hand, this was a playoff atmosphere the players and fans deserved.
Hopkinton’s super quick point guard Elise Miner was all over Kiley Bundy as the Hawks plan seemed to be to disrupt Stevens with a press. Stevens dominated the game in the first eight minutes but let the visitors hang around leading only 10-7.
“We were doing everything right,” Alyssa Paquette said. “We were sky high for this and our game plan just took over.”
The Cardinal size and poise eventually wore down the Hawks as the Stevens lead increased each quarter until their defense took over the game in the final quarter to win going away.
“Hopkinton is a solid team,” said Rice as the Cardinals threw different defensive looks as the game wore on. “We just really stepped up our defense in the last quarter.”
Paquette and Tara Sullivan made life miserable for the Hawks as they rebounded, blocked and dominated the paint with their best performances of the season for Steve Condon’s Cardinals.
“They really were huge tonight,” Condon said. “They came ready tonight and played the way we knew they would.”
Hopkinton started draining shots from beyond the arc as Kally Murdough began to light it up but the Cardinals would answer. Paquette would drop in a hard shot while Rice connected on a drive down the lane and added a free throw. Stella Lavertue started to muscle her way into the paint and her bucket was followed by a couple of Bundy free throws as Stevens was hunting points in the paint area.
“We kept being aggressive and crashing the boards,” Lavertue said. “If there was a loose ball, we hit the floor as hard as we could.”
The 21-15 Cardinal halftime lead grew to eight points entering the final quarter. And that’s when Condon opted to slide into a man to man defense. Paquette and Rice started a run to open the quarter for Stevens. Rice and Lavertue grabbed back to back steals and the Cardinals were on their way. Sullivan would bang in a shot, Paquette hit both her free throws after getting hammered and another hoop from the junior Lavertue closed out a 10-1 run.
Paquette and Sullivan were looking for isolation’s inside and the ball movement around the outside was crisp and with a purpose. Once again Jenna Bonneau was getting dirty and ripping down an offensive rebound in traffic that resulted in a Bundy three pointer as the lead grew to 49-32 with the Cardinal student section on their feet.
Bonneau would close things out with an offensive rebound and put back as the Cardinals will be headed down Route 12 to face Fall Mountain on Saturday in quarter final action.
“This was fun,” Condon said. “There was a great crowd and the energy was fantastic here tonight.”
Rice led everyone with 15 points while Paquette dropped in 12 points while Bundy finished with 10 points. Hopkinton was led by K. Murdough’s 11 points and Shaylee Murdough’s 10.
“Saturday should be something else,” Rice said. “We know each other pretty well and we will have a few days of hard practice to get ready.”
Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m.
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