Pilgrim dominates glass in first league win

By Matt Metcalf
Posted 12/22/16

Tolman eliminated the Pilgrim girls' basketball team in the Division III playoffs last winter en route to its Cinderella title run. So, when the two teams met for the first time since that game on Monday evening, the Pats

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Pilgrim dominates glass in first league win

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Tolman eliminated the Pilgrim girls’ basketball team in the Division III playoffs last winter en route to its Cinderella title run.

So, when the two teams met for the first time since that game on Monday evening, the Pats had revenge on the mind.

Pilgrim would return the favor, controlling the game from start to finish to clinch its first Division II victory, 57-48, over the Tigers.

The Pats’ most significant advantage came on the boards, with sophomore forward Caitlyn Fallon registering a monster double-double of 12 points and 22 rebounds.

Senior forward Crystal Armstrong pulled down 10 boards of her own, and senior point guard Kat Raposo netted a team-high 16 points to go along with four steals to spearhead the offensive attack.

“We have a two-headed monster in Caitlyn Fallon and Crystal Armstrong rebounding,” Pilgrim head coach Scott Bayha said. “Obviously we had a big height advantage today. That was the game. We owned the glass. We probably won this game on second-chance points.”

Pilgrim raced out to an 8-0 lead out of the gate, as Raposo, Fallon, Armstrong and Mackenzie Hough each recorded two points over that stretch.

A 3 by Tolman guard Julia Al-Amir got the Tigers on the board, but Pilgrim’s balanced scoring kept the visiting squad at an arm’s length.

With 9:25 left in the half, Mary Mullane banked in a 3, and a Fallon offensive rebound and putback pushed the lead to 20-9 a couple of minutes later.

Hough paced Pilgrim over the first 16 minutes, with the Vets transfer pouring in eight first-half points.

She nailed a straightaway triple with 5:30 left in the first half, before coming up with a steal just over a minute later and heaving a full-court pass ahead to Raposo for a layup to make it a 28-16 game.

Tolman trimmed the deficit to six with under one minute before the break, but Raposo drove into the paint and found an open Fallon under the basket for a 2 on the half’s final possession, giving the Pats a 32-24 advantage heading to the locker room.

Pilgrim’s unselfish brand of basketball paid dividends in the opening stages of the second half, helping it to a 12-1 run over the first five minutes, 45 seconds of the second frame.

Nearly two minutes into the half, Fallon hit the offensive glass once again for a board and a layup.

Tolman then called a timeout after Raposo grabbed a defensive rebound and raced the length of the floor for a layup to increase the Tigers’ deficit to 40-25.

Less than two minutes later, Pilgrim had tacked on four more points to its lead, so Tigers’ head coach Walter Gonzalez called for a full timeout and got his message across in the form of making his team run sprints.

It may have been a bit unorthodox, but the Tigers came out looking like a completely different team after that point.

The Tigers produced a 17-5 run following the timeout to trim the Pats’ lead to 49-42, but the margin never got closer than that.

Raposo took over the game down the stretch.

She made a nice entry pass to Fallon for an easy bucket, and less than a minute later broke the press single-handedly for an uncontested bucket that gave Pilgrim a 51-42 lead.

With five minutes to go, Mullane’s pesky defense led to a steal, and Raposo completed the play with a nice finish at the other end to make it a 57-42 game.

Tolman put together a run midway through the second half, but, overall, Pilgrim’s defense with its size down low and athleticism at the perimeter frustrated the Tigers for the majority of the game.

“We manned up and let our rebounding do the talking down low,” Bayha said of the defensive game plan coming in. “We shaded drives, and I think that was the right game plan for us today.”

The Pats improved to 1-1 in D-II with the victory, falling at Woonsocket a few nights prior.

Pilgrim was set to return to action on Wednesday night when it was scheduled to host Juanita Sanchez, but results were unavailable at press time.

However, Bayha knew his team was going to have its hands full with the Cavaliers, who are expected to be one of the top teams in the league this season.

“Our next game is Juanita Sanchez, who is the best of the best,” Bayha said. “We’re really going to have to show up.”

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