NORTH ANDOVER — The Pentucket and Andover girls basketball programs have developed quite the nice little rivalry over the years in the popular Commonwealth Motors Christmas Classic tournament.
You had the 2017 third-place game, which Pentucket won, 55-49.
Then last year, Andover broke away for a commanding 63-44 victory in the semifinals, before eventually going on to win the holiday tourney and later the entire Division 1 State Championship.
Thursday’s “rubber match,” however, may have been the best of the bunch.
For the first three-and-a-half quarters at Merrimack College’s Lawler Arena, No. 2 seed Pentucket did everything to keep No. 3 Andover in the rearview mirror. Whenever the Warriors would cut it to a one-possession game, either senior superstar Gabby Bellacqua or sophomore sensation Amelia Crowe would hit a huge shot to provide some breathing room. But defensive lapses ultimately doomed the Panthers, as stalwart senior Michaela Buckley hit a game-tying layup late in the fourth quarter to send the game into overtime, and Andover controlled the extra frame to punch its ticket back to the finals with a 48-42 victory.
“I felt like we were controlling the game for the most part, we just had too many breakdowns on defense at the end,” said Pentucket coach John McNamara. “Too many reversals where we didn’t rotate and they got layups, so I think that killed us.”
Pentucket will now play either Methuen or Central Catholic in Saturday’s third-place game (time TBD).
And there were of course no excuses, but the Panthers (3-1) weren’t at 100% on Thursday.
Bellacqua, a two-time Daily News All-Star who can score from anywhere on the court, suffered an ankle injury during the team’s tourney opener against North Andover on Wednesday, and missed a good chunk of that game. She gave it a go on Thursday and ended up playing the entire 36 minutes, but mainly because the Panthers didn’t want to risk it swelling up if she sat on the bench for a while. Throw in as well that sophomore guard Carly Foley — who’s stepped up as a key piece over the team’s first few games this year — took a big hit against the Knights, and as a result only managed to play a handful of minutes on Thursday.
But again, no excuses were made after the game.
“(Andover’s) zone was tough,” said McNamara. “We swung it around too much and needed to penetrate more, but we got a lot of good looks. I don’t think it was so much our offense, but our defense that let us down.”
Despite the result, Pentucket had plenty of positives to take away.
Top among them being Crowe, who enjoyed herself a breakout party with a game-high 19 points to go along with 7 rebounds. She showcased a great shooting touch with three 3s, and a putback layup off an offensive rebound at the buzzer gave Pentucket a 19-17 lead at halftime. She then scored the first seven Panther points to open the third quarter, which was matched by Gloria Igwe (16 pts) on the other side scoring the first five of the frame for Andover (5-0).
But still, Crowe’s performance was an impressive one for the sophomore.
“Amelia stepped up today,” said McNamara. “She’s still learning what she can do on the court, she can dominate, and she hit some big shots for us today.”
After a Bellacqua 3 made it a four-point game heading into the fourth quarter, Crowe followed with another 3 to give Pentucket a 35-29 lead with 5:30 left. But, in true champion fashion, Andover refused to go away, and got a 3 from Ella Vidoni and a Buckley jumper to bring it back to 35-34. A triple from Cate Margolis gave the Warriors their first lead of the game, but Bellacqua’s younger sister, Sofia, hit two free throws to tie it before Gabby converted a layup to make it 39-37 with a minute left.
“First of all, utmost respect for John and his program,” said Andover coach Alan Hibino. “We just took on a tremendous challenge. I mean, Gabby Bellacqua — I went to (Andover) high school with both of her parents — so she’s a true Warrior. She’s literally got Warrior blood in her! But they just kept coming in waves with different traps and different presses. I know that John’s team is going to be well-prepared, and they were. So we just tried to weather some of the storm.”
And the Warriors did just that.
It was Buckley who grabbed the long offensive rebound after a missed 3, and the senior drove hard and converted the bucket to tie the game at 39-39 and send it to overtime. Pentucket had the final possession of regulation, but couldn’t get a shot off. Then in the extra frame, it was Arissa Dorelas (18 pts) and Igwe helping the Warriors open up a 43-39 lead. A tough Crowe bucket through traffic made it 43-42, but a breakdown in the Panthers’ press led to a wide-open Igwe layup, and after a missed 3 it was Buckley sealing the game at the line with free throws.
Andover 48, Pentucket 42
CMCC Second Round
Andover (48): Michaela Buckley 2-2-6, Arissa Dorelas 7-0-18, Gloria Igwe 7-2-16, Cate Margolis 1-0-3, Ella Vidoni 2-0-5, Madeline Osborne 0-0-0, Kiera Lenihan 0-0-0, Ella Seymour 0-0-0. Totals 19-4-48
Newburyport (42): Sofia Bellacqua 1-2-4, Gabby Bellacqua 4-1-11, Amelia Crowe 6-4-19, Kate Conover 0-0-0, Ava DiBurro 1-0-3, Maisie King 1-0-2, Carly Foley 0-0-0, Allie Gagnon 1-1-3. Totals 14-8-42
3-pointers: A — Dorelas 4, Margolis, Vidoni; P — Crowe 3, G. Bellacqua 2, DiBurro
Andover (5-0): 5 12 10 12 9 — 48
Pentucket (3-1): 10 9 12 8 3 — 42