PHOTO BY BOB ROCHE
Revere’s Elizabeth Lake breaks toward the basket, chased by Medford’s Sam Morin.
By HAROLD RIVERA
REVERE – It didn’t take long for Revere’s Lianne O’Hara to get her first state tournament win as a head coach. In her first crack at it, O’Hara and the No. 2 Revere girls basketball team rolled to a 65-35 win over No. 15 Medford on Monday night at Roland Merullo Field House in the first round of the Division 1 North tournament.
“It’s exciting,” O’Hara said. “But it’s also nerve wracking because I know we still have work to do. It’s exciting but I know there’s a challenge yet to come.”
Valentina Pepic led the Patriots with a game-high 20 points and 11 rebounds. Pamela Gonzalez scored 13 points and swiped five steals. Tatianna Iacoviello added 13 points and dished out seven assists. Meaghan Gotham finished with six points, 11 rebounds and three blocks.
Medford hung tough in the first quarter, bouncing back after the Patriots opened the game on an 8-0 run. Gonzalez and Emily DiGiulio converted on a pair of steals and Pepic added two buckets to give the Patriots the early advantage.
The Mustangs closed the quarter on a 7-5 run and trailed 13-7 after the first.
“I think we felt that we haven’t played in a while, and we haven’t played,” O’Hara said. “We got a scrimmage in on Friday but it’s still not the same setting. It’s really loud in here, so I think we were a little bit nervous.”
The second quarter was all Revere. Erika Cheever swished the game’s first three-pointer and Iacoviello followed with a pair of free throws, putting Revere up by double-digits at 21-11. Iacoviello knocked in a three in the final seconds of the quarter and the Patriots led 30-14 at halftime.
“We got a little more patient on offense and let things happen instead of trying to force the ball into the middle,” O’Hara said. “Pamela and some of the other girls started shooting a little bit more.
“We got a lot of steals as well,” O’Hara said. “We had 22 steals in the game, 14 in the first half.”
Medford captain Destiny Fitzgerald (14 points) led the Mustangs comeback efforts in the third quarter, finishing the period with nine points. Revere maintained the comfortable lead after three, 42-26.
The Patriots ran away with the game in the fourth quarter. Revere’s lead reached 30 when Elizabeth Lake drained a three to put the Patriots up 65-35. From there, the win was in the bag and the Patriots coasted to the victory.
Revere featured nine different scorers in the win.
“It’s a nice thing to happen,” O’Hara said. “In the first half we couldn’t finish. We were getting rebounds under the basket but we couldn’t score. We’ll be working on that in practice.”
The Patriots outrebounded the Mustangs 45-32, and were also stingier on the defensive end. While Revere totalled 22 steals on the night, Medford couldn’t swipe any.
Up next, Revere will host No. 7 Central Catholic on Friday night.
“Seeing Central Catholic will be tough because they’re a good program,” O’Hara said. “We have to really prepare for them.”