The Pinkerton Academy girls’ basketball squad had a long and rather challenging break between its two contests in the Commonwealth Motors Christmas Classic tournament in Massachusetts recently.
Second-year varsity coach Lani Buskey’s bunch played its first tourney game way on Sunday, Dec. 21, and bested a New Hampshire opponent.
And Buskey’s bunch didn’t see the court in the classic again until this past Monday evening, when it had to try to shake off the rust that usually comes with such a lengthy competitive break in a hunt for more success.
The Lady Astros began their holiday tournament involvement two Sundays ago by playing the Salem High Lady Blue Devils at Merrimack College in North Andover, Mass. And everything went quite well for the locals in a 56-42 defeat of New Hampshire opponent.
Senior forward Val Martin had one bang-up night for the locals, tallying a game-high 22 points. Marissa Stacy sank three treys and finished with nine points for PA, and Sara McLeman was also good for nine points.
The academy girls led 12-8 after one quarter, 25-14 at the half, and 34-28 after three periods before closing out the win by outscoring their opponent by a 21-13 margin in the fourth quarter.
After their lengthy Christmas break, the Lady Astros got back into full-fledged game action Monday night, Dec. 29, by meeting the Lawrence (Mass.) High lady cagers.
That contest – which was played for the tourney’s Hyde Division championship – took place on the Lawrence ladies’ home court, and the hosts snagged a hard-fought 53-46 win. Lawrence led by a slim point (14-13) after one quarter, but the score was all knotted up at 26-26 at the half. Both teams netted 11 points in quarter three to send the game into its final period still tied up (37-37), but the host squad outscored its guest by a 16-9 tally in the fourth to win going away.
Stalwart Martin netted 12 points, Stacy scored 11, and Jaime Caron and Sara McLeman each had nine in the losing effort.
