Moultonborough stifles Portsmouth Christian girls
By RYAN O'LEARYLaconia Citizen
MOULTONBOROUGH — Portsmouth Christian was shuffling to its worst game of the season. Moultonborough was hungry to shrug off its latest loss.
It equated to a Division IV rout that no one could have predicted.
Freshman standout Morgan Fuller scored 21 points and the Panthers avenged their only D-IV loss of the season, thumping PCA 43-24 Friday at Moultonborough Academy. The Panthers, now 12-2, wanted to show they were better than last week's lopsided loss to Inter-Lakes. They did so emphatically, holding PCA, which came in averaging 48.6 points per game, to single digits until the closing minutes of the third quarter.
"It's not me, it's the kids," MA coach Chuck Kenney said. "They wanted it more tonight. They all played very, very well. Everybody did something when they went in. It was a big, big win."
The Eagles, now 10-3 and still in prime position for a home tournament game, were not themselves. They certainly weren't the team that beat MA by 10 before Christmas. They weren't the team that won eight straight games until falling to undefeated Derryfield by 12.
On Friday, they were hesitant, disoriented and overmatched.
"Honestly, we just came out and didn't do anything that was asked. We didn't run offense, we didn't play defense, we absolutely shut down," PCA coach Herb Smart said. "We just didn't play basketball. Moultonborough's a good team, but we allowed them to bully us. It just wasn't PCA basketball. It just wasn't."
MA senior Ashley Fuller, who finished with 11 points, scored five in the first quarter as the Panthers opened a 9-2 lead. It was 13-5 midway through the second quarter when Morgan Fuller scored her first basket underneath. When the half ended, the Panther lead was 16-5. It felt like a whole lot more.
"They played as a team," Kenney praised. "Everyone was helping on defense, everyone was moving. The defense came to play."
The Eagles made just one field goal in each of the first two quarters, getting a 3-pointer from Leah DiTommaso early in the second. They went 0 for 5 at the foul line in the second quarter and were held scoreless over the final 5:35 of the half.
Frustrated when his team couldn't organize itself into an offensive set, Smart called a timeout and subbed in five players off the bench.
"I was hoping we would have been able to get out of it in the second quarter, but unfortunately we didn't," Smart said. "We flat out did not play basketball, and it's going to happen, but it's happening at the wrong time."
Morgan Fuller took over in the third quarter. She opened with four straight baskets inside and closed it with a buzzer-beating runner off the glass. She also had four rebounds in the frame and a block that she swatted toward the left-side bleachers. She ended up with 13 points in the quarter — the same number PCA scored in the first three combined.
On this night, the Eagles had no answer. Their top offensive weapon was being hounded by MA's Megan Uehlein, and the mental mistakes piled and piled. There was an ill-advised pass that sailed wildly under the backboard. There was another turnover in open space when a ball handler pulled up her dribble, but stumbled forward. With Moultonborough ahead 27-6 late in the third, there was a jump shot from 15 feet that cleared the backboard entirely.
PCA scored its seventh point at the free throw line with 1:37 remaining in the third. DiTommaso ended the long drought with a pair of late 3-pointers, but entering the fourth, the Eagles were trailing 34-13. If it was a boxing match, the ref would have called it.
"It wasn't as if they did anything out of the ordinary," Smart said of the Panthers. "They ran a four-out, one-in offense. We run the same play. That's what amazed me. We practice against the same play. They run a motion. We run a motion. But we didn't get into our sets. It was just a tough, tough game to watch and to endure. It was just all around tough. The horn can't buzz too soon."
DiTommaso finished with three 3-balls and a team-best nine points for PCA. Yvonne Dean-Bailey and Meaghan Long added five points apiece. The Eagles finished the night 7 of 22 from the foul line and made just four field goals inside the 3-point arch.
PCA has now scored 26 points or fewer over a two-game skid. The Eagles travel to D-III's Farmington on Monday.
"We're still in a good spot, we just have to finish the season," Smart said. "We've got to find a way to start clicking, because now is not the time to start falling apart."
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