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Fenwick’s Colleen Corcoran scored 18 points in the Crusaders’ quarterfinal win over Amesbury.
By MATT FRASER
DANVERS — A 10-day layoff between games had no effect on the Bishop Fenwick girls basketball team in its Division 3 North tournament opener, a 69-32 rout of No. 7 Amesbury on Friday evening at St. John’s Prep.
The No. 2 Crusaders, led by seniors Sydney Brennan (game-high 22 points) and Colleen Corcoran (18) went on a 10-0 run spanning 6:37 of the first and second quarters to build a comfortable lead before their dynamic offense put the game out of reach by halftime.
“I thought it was an extremely well-rounded effort from start to finish,” said coach Adam DeBaggis, whose team advances to the semifinals for a Catholic Central League showdown with No. 3 St. Mary’s. “You can’t really strategize around starting strong, but that was certainly one of our talking points and the girls did a very good job of executing early, on both ends of the floor. That’s Fenwick basketball.”
Brennan and Corcoran combined for nine points in the opening eight minutes, with Brennan burying the first of four triples at the 5:40 mark, forcing the Indians to call an early timeout.
Following a 3-pointer from the Indians’ Madison Napoli (team-high 11 points), Fenwick put the clamps down in the defensive end while junior Samantha Mancinelli and sophomore Jennie Meagher put back a couple of offensive rebounds to give the Crusaders a 13-7 lead after one quarter.
Mancinelli finished with 11 points, while Meagher added seven off of the bench.
“You can’t win the big games without a certain kind of team chemistry,” said DeBaggis who gushed over his team’s’ work on the glass led by Corcoran (10 rebounds), Mancinelli (8) and Meagher (7).
Consecutive buckets from Corcoran to open the ensuing frame preceded the merciful end of Amesbury’s drought, via a basket from Flannery O’Connor at 6:18. The floodgates opened for good shortly after, starting with a three-point play from freshman Jaxson Nadeau, who drew a foul on a successful bank in. Corcoran scored eight points in the period, which ended on the first of a trio of 3-pointers from Mancinelli with eight seconds remaining in the second, allowing the Crusaders to enter halftime ahead, 34-15.
“I was a bit nervous coming in, thinking we’d maybe come out a little too excited and miss some shots,” said DeBaggis, who quickly found out that wasn’t the case, as his team showed exceptional composure. “The girls were calm and quickly settled into a rhythm at both ends which was really great to see.” Brennan and Mancinelli (five assists) each hit a pair of triples in the third quarter before Fenwick’s bench took over. Seniors Ellen Fantozzi (4 points) and Melissa MacKenzie added buckets along with juniors Samantha Gulla and Mikayla Porcaro.