Taunton girls basketball falls behind early to NB in Rodrigues' first game against Whalers
TAUNTON — For decades, the Rodrigues name has been synonymous with New Bedford basketball.
From longtime Whalers boys basketball coach Ed Rodrigues, who's name now bestows the court where he guided them to back-to-back Division 1 state titles in 1993 and 1994, to children Ryan, Rebecca and Gretchen Rodrigues who all starred for the Whalers, with the latter having the biggest impact on the court as the program's all-time leading scorer with 1,391 points, as well as the all-time points leader for lacrosse (379) before recently serving as the New Bedford girls junior varsity coach.
On Sunday, Gretchen Rodrigues, in her first season at the helm of Taunton, got her first chance to take on New Bedford but a high-scoring first quarter from a quick Whalers (9-3) team put the Tigers (5-8) into an early hole they couldn't dig out of as they fell 59-39 at home in non-league action.
"Obviously I wanted to win, that’s my alma mater, I coached there, those are my girls and (New Bedford coach Jordan Pina) is a good friend of mine," Rodrigues said. "It would’ve been nice to win but we didn’t and it is what it is."
The Whalers scored 25 of their 59 points in the first quarter, led largely by double-double performances from senior guard and captain Vanessa Bucha and junior guard and captain Lexi Thompson, who had 13 points and 10 rebounds and 10 points and 10 rebounds respectively. Sophomore guard/forward Zaria Anderson led New Bedford overall with 15 points, including three three-pointers.
"They killed us right out of the gate and then we slowed the game down after that and I thought we played well, but when you start off like that against a good team like that, it’s almost impossible catch up and I thought we got defeated right away," Rodrigues said.
Sophomore forward Skylar McCrohan led the way for Taunton with 15 points, nine of which came in the second half, while freshman guard Taryn Campbell had 11 points and junior guard and captain Cali Melo had eight.
After being down 25-4 at the end of the first quarter, the Tigers turned things around in the second as they outscored the visitors 11-6 in the second quarter and 35-34 overall the final three quarters, but it proved too little, too late for the hosts.
"When you start off like that you’re never going to catch up and they’re a great team," Rodrigues said. "They have great guards that are veterans, it just is what it is."
A little over halfway through the season, Taunton has been making progress and at 5-8 already have more wins than they finished with last season at 4-16. After a 3-0 start, the Tigers have won just two of their last 10, though as Rodrigues says, that comes with playing a tough schedule in a tough league with a young team.
"We’re hitting a little bit of a slump right now," Rodrigues said. "I just think we play good teams every single night, like we play Foxboro Tuesday and they're (ranked No. 6 in Division 2). (As for) New Bedford, they’re fast and we’re not used to playing fast. We don’t really play so many fast teams, we play good teams, but they’re tough. It’s tough right now. We’re just hitting a wall and we’ve got practice tomorrow and we’ll just try to get one this week."
The Tigers now face a trip to Hockomock Davenport leaders Foxboro (11-1, 10-0 Hockomock League) Tuesday, with Rodrigues knowing the Tigers will have their hands full with the Warriors, but confident that they'll put their best foot forward.
"We’ll try our best," Rodrigues said. "We’ll be prepared and we’ll try our best."
Tip-off is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Foxboro High School.
Taunton Daily Gazette sports reporter Cameron Merritt can be reached at cmerritt@tauntongazette.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @CamMerritt_News. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to the Taunton Daily Gazette today.
This article originally appeared on The Taunton Daily Gazette: Taunton girls basketball falls behind early to New Bedford
