LYNNFIELD — Friday night simply wasn’t the night for the Lynnfield girls basketball team, as the Pioneers fell to Division 1 powerhouse Masconomet 49-15 at Lynnfield High after a game of struggles on both sides of the ball. Lynnfield had issues with Masconomet’s press defense, getting into turnover trouble early and falling into a hole it couldn’t dig out of.
“(Masconomet) is a Division 1 team and they’ve been a powerhouse for some time, and they’ve really been giving it to us over the past few years,” said Lynnfield coach Peter Bocchino. “We had way too many issues with turnovers all game and we couldn’t hit shots tonight, and that’s no recipe for victory.”
Junior forward Melissa Morelli led the Pioneers with eight points and three rebounds, while freshman forward Catherine MacDonald added three points and seven rebounds. Junior forward Victoria Morelli had two points and two rebounds, while sophomore forward Ava Buonfiglio had a solid game off the bench with five rebounds. Sophomore guard Grace Klonsky and freshman forward Anna Radulski also had good performances in the loss.
The Pioneers did a good job defensively in the early part of the first quarter by employing a zone defense, but eventually the Chieftains started hitting shots over the top to counteract it. Once the shots started falling, Masconomet’s Mak Graves hit three 3-pointers and scored 11 points in the period to help give the Chieftains some breathing room. At the same time, Lynnfield couldn’t get anything going on the offensive end, and when the dust settled Masconomet took a 14-5 lead into the second quarter.
“This is honestly the first time in quite awhile where we stuck with them for most of the first quarter, which was nice to see,” Bocchino said. “But eventually that press defense that they’re so good at running got to us.”
The second quarter is where things started to get away from Lynnfield. The Pioneers started to turn the ball over at an increased rate, which helped Masconomet break the game open and go up by as many as 14 points. Also helping that run was Masconomet’s defense, which forced Lynnfield into turnover after turnover.
Bocchino says that this is an issue that his team has run into this year when it matches up against opponents from higher divisions.
“We have a pretty young team, and I think they just haven’t seen enough of that kind of pressure to be able to work through it yet,” Bocchino said. “When we go up against teams that don’t run that pressure-style defense, we excel. But teams that can put pressure on us take us right out of our offense and we have a tough time.”
The second half was no better for the Pioneers, who only mustered five total points the rest of the way. A number of reserves on both sides saw playing time as the Chieftains coasted to victory.
Now at .500 on the season, it’s time for Lynnfield (7-7) to buckle down for the home stretch. The Pioneers need to win three of their final six games to qualify for the state tournament, starting with a road game against Manchester-Essex Tuesday.
“We’ve just got to keep working on the things we’ve been working on all year and I think we’ll be in good shape,” said Bocchino. “I don’t really know anything about this year’s Manchester-Essex team, but we played them in a good game last year so hopefully we can pull out a win.”