Third time a charm: Case girls basketball sweeps West Bridgewater, advances to Sweet 16
SWANSEA — The Case girls basketball team did nothing to give credibility to the adage about it being difficult to defeat the same team three times in a season.
Two-time comfortable winners over 24th-seeded West Bridgewater during the regular season, the ninth-seeded Cardinals (16-5) did it a third time on Friday night, excelling on defense throughout their 61-21 Round of 32 Division 4 girls' basketball game at Monahan Gymnasium.
In the Round of 16, Case plays at No. 8 Mashpee (18-5). While date and time had not been posted on the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association website at the time of this writing, Case coach Dave Silva said he suspects the game to be played on Monday.
Against West Bridgewater (10-11), senior guards Brooke Orton (19 points) Jamie Moniz (14) were Case's top scorers. Junior forward Liberty Gazaille netted 10 points, rebounded strongly and blocked multiple shots.
Case led 9-4 at the end of one quarter, 29-16 at halftime, and then used a 17-3 third quarter to open a 46-19 lead heading into the last eight minutes.
West Bridgewater finished with 37 turnovers, 12 in the first quarter.
“It's been two weeks since we played a game,” Moniz said. “And we all played together. Everyone was scoring. We were all sharing the ball. We had really, really good defense. That's mainly what we worked on the last two weeks. Man (to-man defense). We haven't played a team in man for most of the season.
“It was a good win. We all played together.”
OFFENSIVE SPARK
A starter for much of the season, freshman forward Emma Plante came off the bench to trigger a Case 20-point second quarter with five points — including a three-point play — in the opening two minutes.
“During the year, we had some injuries and stuff and Emma rolled in as a starter,” Coach Dave Silva said. “And it just happened this week, she's been ill, so she came off the bench and she provided the same punch she has been in the starting five.
“So we have a balance of like seven kids that could state at any time. We do have some spark that comes off the bench.”
THEY SAID IT
Senior guard Allie Holden (four points, tenacious defense): “We push each other to be good, at every practice. And we stay accountable for our mistakes.”
Moniz: “I hope that if we can keep doing the right things and keep playing together, we'll all make it as far as we can. I think we're a good team and we have a lot of potential.”
MORE ON BEING IDLE FOR TWO WEEKS
“It was a concern,” Silva said. “Luckily enough we had No. 6 (seed) Norton come down on Monday, who is one of the better teams in this area. That kind of helped. And we had a really good scrimmage against them. But like anything else, you never know what you're going to get when you go live after two weeks, so we were very happy tonight with our defensive effort.”
NEXT UP, MASHPEE
Mashpee, of the South Shore League, advanced through the Round of 32 by roaring past Bay Path Regional 64-38.
“They have talented players, two thousand-point scorers,” Silva said. “So it's a real good team. And they come out of a real good league.”
In cousins Hialeah Turner-Foster and Amiyah Peters, Mashpee features two 1,000-point scorers. Peters reached 1,000 last season, Turner-Foster this season.
This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Case rolls past West Bridgewater in Division IV Round of 32 matchup
