ATTLEBORO – Archbishop Williams squandered an 11-point third quarter lead on poor outside shooting and uncharacteristic free throw line jitters, but rallied late to pull out a 60-56 win in double overtime over Bishop Feehan.
The Bishops (15-2), ranked eighth in the most recent Herald Top 25, relied on the all-around play of Asiah Dingle down the stretch. She made three free throws down the stretch to seal the victory. The Kent State-bound senior guard finished with a game-high 28 points, 24 coming in the first three quarters.
“They played great defense against us, we just settled for the quick shot, and we stop running,” said Archbishop Williams head coach Matt Mahoney. “We should have been attacking the basket a little bit more.”
The Bishops trailed 11-10 after the first quarter, but opened the second quarter on a 9-2 run capped by a three-pointer from Lexi Hansen to take a 19-13 lead. The Archies maintained the six-point lead throughout the rest of the second quarter as Dingle was electric in open space to finish with 16 at the break. The defending Division 3 champions went into halftime with a 27-21-lead.
“We know (Dingle) is on the court and in key junctures of the game, she didn’t score a lot but she had steals and it was an exhausting game,” said Bishop Feehan head coach Michael Deady. “We played extraordinarily well in a difficult situation.”
The third quarter was much of the same but Archbishop Williams started to fall into a false sense of security as it settled for three-pointers and stopped the run-and-gun that build an 11-point lead midway through the third.
“I think a bunch of our shooters thought they were better shooters then we even thought,” joked Mahoney.
The Bishops went ice cold in the fourth quarter as senior captain Riley Lahiff came alive for the Shamrocks. Lahiff found a soft spot in the paint and hit jumper after jumper going for 12 of her 16 points in the final eight minutes of regulation to help Bishop Feehan erase the nine-point deficit to start the fourth.
But it was an assist from Lahiff to Sarah John outside the arc that John flushed home for three and got the Shamrocks back within one that had the home crowd back in the fold.
Anna Shaughnessy (team-high 18 points) put the Shamrocks ahead with a floating jumper in the middle for the first time since the first quarter. But Jess Knight, who was outstanding in the paint all game with 12 rebounds, was fouled on an up-and-under and completed the three-point play to put Archbishop Williams back out front, 45-43, with 1:54 left in regulation.
It was the first field goal for the Archies in the entire fourth quarter stretching over a six-minute scoring drought, but Archbishop Williams still miraculously had the two-point lead.
“In terms of preparing us for the tournament, this is exactly where we want to be,” said Deady. “To beat these kids, you have to be at your best and we were almost there, right? Almost – but we’ll be there in the tournament if we are afforded the opportunity.”
After some back-and-forth misses from both sides, Deady called timeout off a missed free throw rebound with five seconds left. Deady set up the inbound for his go-to shooter and Lahiff didn’t disappoint with a turnaround jumper two feet in front of the charity stripe to tie the game at the buzzer and send the game into the first overtime.
The momentum was on the Shamrocks side but two back-to-back three pointers for Bridgette O’Reilly (11 points) kept the Archies and Bishop Feehan tied at 52 after the first extra stanza.
O’Reilly hit her third three of the game to put Archbishop Williams up for good 57-56 with 34.8 left and this set up the drama for Dingle to showcase her stuff on the other side of the ball. The 5’3’’ spitfire was just in time with three steals and forced two more turnovers in the waning seconds before putting things away from the free throw line. Dingle finished with eight steals and just missed the double-double with nine rebounds as well.
Every team needs that player or two that doesn’t showcase in the scorebook but shines with the intangibles. Credit Erica Silvia and Monica Spain who were all over the court with Silvia grabbing the key rebound to keep the Archies out front in the final seconds of the second overtime. Silvia also picked up her third offensive charge in the last two games for Coach Mahoney to handle all the little things.
Even though Dingle secured the win with free throws, the team collectively finished 10-of-22 and it almost cost Coach Mahoney and his squad the game.
“The last couple of games we’ve struggled from (the free throw line) and it’s something we need to focus on a little bit more”, added Mahoney. “But the last couple of games (Silvia) has been outstanding and she knows where every loose ball is and is involved to the end.”
