Big 4th quarter pushes girls’ hoop past Burlington in first round, 53-30

Warriors await Wednesday’s North Reading vs. Hamilton-Wenham winner

Published in the February 27, 2018 edition.

By DAN BYRNE

WAKEFIELD—Round 1 of the MIAA Division 2 North State Tournament is in the books and the #4 seeded Wakefield Warriors are headed to the next round following a 53-30 triumph over the #13 seed Lady Devils of Burlington High School.

It was a huge win, the first in the postseason for first-year head coach Jason Pavey as he spoke after the win saying, “We were just saying, ‘it’s a cliché for a reason, because it happens, it’s hard to beat a team three times in a season,’” making reference to the fact that two of the Warriors wins came over Burlington already this year.

The Warriors came out strong defensively, allowing just 4 points each in the first two quarters. Wakefield found getting buckets hard to come by as well, as they managed just 9 points in the first quarter and 10 in the second quarter.

“Burlington made the tournament for a reason, they’re really hard to play against with what they show you defensively,” Pavey said. “So they did a pretty good job of getting us out of what we like to do.”

“We told the kids at halftime that this was going to be a grind it out game,” he went on. “We were going to have to win it on the defensive end, rebound. I thought we did a really good job of competing and playing hard for 32 minutes when our shots weren’t falling.”

With scoring at a premium early on, the Warriors needed some offense and Hailey Lovell answered the call with 7 out of the 10 Warriors points in the 2nd quarter as they held an 11-point lead at halftime with the score at 19-8.

Hannah Dziadyk led all scorers for the Warriors as she put 19 points on the board, including five 3-pointers.

Burlington had a tough time getting points on the board, but they were able to get open shots, just not able to make them.

That wouldn’t last, as there was a huge momentum shift at the start of the 3rd quarter.

The Lady Devils came out with a purpose in the 3rd quarter. In the first two quarters, the visitors failed to register any points before the halfway mark in the periods, but in the 3rd they came out on fire.

With the benefit of a 12-4 run to open the quarter, Burlington cut the Warriors’ lead down to just 4 points.

Coach Pavey provided some insight as to what was going on in his mind at that point saying, “I’m just thinking, we need to score,” he said.

“We knew they were going to make a run. I felt like, especially in the first half they were getting good looks, but they weren’t finishing,” the coach admitted.

“It’s only a matter of time, if we don’t make adjustments on defense and we don’t close out on good shooters, those are going to go. That being said, even though they cut it to 4, the one thing these kids never do is they never panic, they never waiver, they never get nervous.”

“They knew there was still a lot of game left to play, we stayed within ourselves and played team basketball and we got the result we wanted.”

Wakefield pulled it together to close out the quarter, as Hannah Dziadyk sunk a big 3 to stop the Devils’ momentum. The Warriors closed the 3rd on a 6-0 run of their own, extending the lead back out to 10 to start the 4th quarter.

Wakefield led 30-20 heading into the final quarter, but the Warriors had to put in a good effort to close out the win over the Lady Devils. The team responded by totaling 23 points in the final quarter, closing the game out with a 12-0 run to seal the win and punch their ticket to the next round.

“In the 4th quarter things started to open up a little bit  the kids were just resilient,” the coach said.

“They didn’t get down on themselves at halftime,” he added. “They were still confident that they could get the job done, so I’m happy for them.”

The Warriors were led by Allee Purcell in the 4th, as she totaled 9 of her 14 points in the final quarter. She was also huge on the glass throughout the game, with a rebound total in double figures.

“We’re an undersized team, but what Allee Purcell does night in and night out on the boards is why shes a league All-Star,” Coach Pavey said of his starting forward.

Hannah Dziadyk had 6 points in the 4th on two 3’s, and the Warriors got baskets from Olivia Dziadyk, Hannah Butler, Hailey Lovell, and a pair of free-throws from Ally Coggswell as the team closed out the win.

The coach made a point to talk about the effort from his entire team, highlighting Hannah Butler as a key contributor.

“Hannah Butler is probably the most improved player on our team. She is a physical presence down there in the low post. She’s playing with a ton of confidence. There came a point in the game that she was doing such a good job defensively and rebounding that we couldn’t take her out.”

Wakefield moves on to face the winner of the #5 seed North Reading vs. #12 seed Hamilton-Wenham game to be played on Wednesday night. Coach Pavey will be there scouting his team’s next opponent.

“I’ll be there, definitely, looking forward to it,” he said. “We’re not ready to go home yet, we’re excited to get back to work.”

That puts the second round game in a time frame for Friday or Saturday, with the MIAA set to announce the date and time after all the round one games are completed.

With the Warriors as the higher seed, the game is will be played at home, and that had Pavey excited as well.

“I’m pretty sure the game is going to be here so it’s nice,” he said. “The kids really get excited when people turn out for the game, so it’s great. Not just the student body at Wakefield High but the WBA kids, the middle school kids; we love it, that’s awesome to see.”