HIGH
SCHOOL GIRLS BASKETBALL: Seniors get the job done for Duxbury
By:Dan Ventura
By Brian Fabry
WORCESTER – The Duxbury faithful serenaded the seniors in the
final seconds of regulation with a chant of “Thank you seniors”. Just
proves the Green Dragons know where their bread is buttered.
In a two-year span, the fearsome foursome of Madeline Foote, Molly Quilty, Jacqueline Sullivan, and Catherine Harrison and the rest of the Green Dragons posted a 50-1 varsity record and capped off their hardwood career with a 51-42 Div.2 state championship title win over Medfield at the DCU Center.
With the victory, unbeaten Duxbury captured the first girls’ basketball title in 17 years.
Last season ended with a bitter taste as the Green Dragons lost to the eventual D2 champions Arlington Catholic in the semifinals to finish 24-1 but it took the perfect 26-0 season this year to finally take down the crown and each senior had a little something to say about ending the drought and leaving a lasting legacy behind.
Foote, who scored 11 points along with a game-high eight assists, scored the final two points from the free throw line for the seniors and the team to cap off the undefeated season.
“You can’t put words to it because 50 wins in the past two years is unheard of,” said Foote. “This is a dream come true and the best part of my life,”
Quilty is literally the center of attention and Medfield did a great job limiting the 6’4’’ center to six points throughout the game. But with Duxbury leading 45-39 with 1:40 left in the game, the defensive whiz Quilty picked up a huge block on Payton Ouimette (game-high 22 points ) and then ran the length of the court to pick up Foote’s final assist on the weak-side block to put the Green Dragons up nine with just over a minute to play.
“Honestly this is my best game,” said Quilty, emphasizing ‘is’ when asked how Medfield limited her work in the paint. “Secondly, we worked hard and the little things do matter – I love these girls – and the team did it all.”
Sullivan showcased her sharpshooting outside with three three-pointers en route to 13 points but it wasn’t easy as the 5’9 guard picked up her fourth foul with 2:20 left in the third, but head coach Robert Sullivan trusted his athletic guard and it paid off down the stretch.
“Just having this, it proves the all the little girls want to do this too,” said Sullivan, referring to the school’s first girls’ basketball championship since 1998. “All the eighth graders come to all of our games and even some practices so we need to keep building and this is certainly a really good start.”
But the workaholic Harrison did put all of her effort down low on the blocks with a game-high 18 rebounds and did a little scoring as well with a team-high 15 points. Harrison scored all but three of those points in the second half as the Warriors defense tired in the final minutes.
“I cried out of the bathroom last year and this year I cried as well but they are happy tears,” said Harrison, who is off to Middlebury next season to continue her stellar hoops career. “We’ve all been playing together since the fifth grade and the first 25 games didn’t matter. This was the one we wanted - we didn’t want to end our senior years going out with a loss – and that’s exactly what we did we did with the win and we worked so hard since freshman year to get this title."
Quilty added that the win was ‘pretty cool’ for the seniors but Coach Sullivan said it best with, “It’s better than that”
In a two-year span, the fearsome foursome of Madeline Foote, Molly Quilty, Jacqueline Sullivan, and Catherine Harrison and the rest of the Green Dragons posted a 50-1 varsity record and capped off their hardwood career with a 51-42 Div.2 state championship title win over Medfield at the DCU Center.
With the victory, unbeaten Duxbury captured the first girls’ basketball title in 17 years.
Last season ended with a bitter taste as the Green Dragons lost to the eventual D2 champions Arlington Catholic in the semifinals to finish 24-1 but it took the perfect 26-0 season this year to finally take down the crown and each senior had a little something to say about ending the drought and leaving a lasting legacy behind.
Foote, who scored 11 points along with a game-high eight assists, scored the final two points from the free throw line for the seniors and the team to cap off the undefeated season.
“You can’t put words to it because 50 wins in the past two years is unheard of,” said Foote. “This is a dream come true and the best part of my life,”
Quilty is literally the center of attention and Medfield did a great job limiting the 6’4’’ center to six points throughout the game. But with Duxbury leading 45-39 with 1:40 left in the game, the defensive whiz Quilty picked up a huge block on Payton Ouimette (game-high 22 points ) and then ran the length of the court to pick up Foote’s final assist on the weak-side block to put the Green Dragons up nine with just over a minute to play.
“Honestly this is my best game,” said Quilty, emphasizing ‘is’ when asked how Medfield limited her work in the paint. “Secondly, we worked hard and the little things do matter – I love these girls – and the team did it all.”
Sullivan showcased her sharpshooting outside with three three-pointers en route to 13 points but it wasn’t easy as the 5’9 guard picked up her fourth foul with 2:20 left in the third, but head coach Robert Sullivan trusted his athletic guard and it paid off down the stretch.
“Just having this, it proves the all the little girls want to do this too,” said Sullivan, referring to the school’s first girls’ basketball championship since 1998. “All the eighth graders come to all of our games and even some practices so we need to keep building and this is certainly a really good start.”
But the workaholic Harrison did put all of her effort down low on the blocks with a game-high 18 rebounds and did a little scoring as well with a team-high 15 points. Harrison scored all but three of those points in the second half as the Warriors defense tired in the final minutes.
“I cried out of the bathroom last year and this year I cried as well but they are happy tears,” said Harrison, who is off to Middlebury next season to continue her stellar hoops career. “We’ve all been playing together since the fifth grade and the first 25 games didn’t matter. This was the one we wanted - we didn’t want to end our senior years going out with a loss – and that’s exactly what we did we did with the win and we worked so hard since freshman year to get this title."
Quilty added that the win was ‘pretty cool’ for the seniors but Coach Sullivan said it best with, “It’s better than that”
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