FALMOUTH – They may be unbeaten, but the 22-0 Falmouth High Clipper girls sure know how to put fans on the edge of their seats and keep it exciting right through to the end.
Enjoying a 41-36 lead after three quarters over the 10th-seeded Hingham Harborwomen, the Clippers watched that lead turn into a 42-41 deficit at the opening of the fourth quarter, only
Falmouth High School’s Alexa Johnson, Taylor Miller, Olivia Ferraro and Sarah Buscher continued to play a swarming style of defense in last night’s 53-48 Division 2 South semifinals win over Hingham.
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to snatch it back and stay on top with just four minutes left. When the dust finally settled on this torrid postseason matchup, the #2-seeded Clipper girls remained untarnished with a 53-48 victory. The win eliminated Hingham from the postseason.
Falmouth now moves on to the Division 2 South Sectional Quarterfinal either on Tuesday, March 3 or Wednesday, March 4 to be held at a neutral site, either Massasoit Community College or Taunton High School against the #3-seeded Foxboro girls.
That four-minute comeback began with the most unsuspecting of characters.
Enter freshman Olivia Ferraro.
With her Clipper girls down 42-41 and four minutes to go, in a gymnasium still reverberating from Tuesday night’s buzzer-beating game-winner now widely known as the Martino-Shot-Heard-Round-Falmouth, Ferraro laced a pair of free throws that once again rattled Falmouth High right down to its rivets.
Ahead 43-42, the Clippers then made a key defensive stop. As school custodians were busy battening down every loose screw, nut and bolt in the event of a fan-section eruption, the night’s true star came forward.
Enter sophomore guard Jenni DiCecco. DiCecco, who finished the night with 17 points, seven assists, eight steals and four rebounds in a superlative showing, took the feed on the opposite end, stepped back and drilled a bleacher-shaking three point bomb for a 46-42 lead that would not, simply could not be relinquished.
“Jenni (DiCecco) really played well tonight,” Falmouth head coach Bob Buscher said. “First quarter, she was a little sluggish, so I took her out actually and she kinda had this look on her face. But she didn’t score in the first quarter. But when I put her back in she scored 12 points in the second quarter so she had gotten the hint that it was, you know, time to play.”
DiCecco’s second quarter output was nothing short of spectacular. She buried a pair of treys, two buckets and tacked on a pair of freebies for a team-inspiring 12 of her evening’s 17-point total.
Indeed, Hingham freshman point guard Haley Blasetti and her older sister Sydney Blasetti did everything in their power to try and duplicate Tuesday night’s nailbiter for the hosts, but this time Coach Buscher opted to intravenously feed icewater into his girls’ hearts and minds. The plan to maintain that emotional balance, notwithstanding the decibel-shattering fan section, worked.
The Falmouth High School girls basketball team is now 22-0 and heads early next week to face Foxboro in the Division 2 South Sectional Semifinals.
Sean Walsh/Capecod.com Sports
After DiCecco “stuck” her trifecta, she stole the ball on Hingham’s return and fed it to Taylor Miller who drew the foul going to the basket. Miller went 1-2 from the line for a 47-42 lead, followed by a Clipper layup and in the spirit-lifting span of approximately one minute and twenty seconds, Falmouth was back on top by seven 49-42 with 2:40 to go.
The back-and-forth that ensued between the two teams in the final two minutes of play eventually brought the Clipper lead back to just five points at 51-46 with 32 seconds left on the clock. In the bonus, DiCecco drew the foul doing just as her coach had advised during a key timeout.
Buscher said he told the girls to look at the situation strictly from a mathematical point of view and being in the bonus situation with Hingham in foul trouble, the likelihood that the Clipper guards could draw a foul was high.
“I said look guys, there’s one minute left and we’re ahead by five points. I said that’s two 30-second clocks. I told the guards just keep it in your hands. Use somebody if you have to but I want you to keep the ball in your hands,” Buscher said. “Keep it away, keep it away, keep it away.”
DiCecco did just that, got the foul and went to the line to hit both freebies for a 53-46 lead. Yes, Hingham did enjoy one final basket as the curtain fell upon its season, but time, simply, was no longer on its side.
Falmouth senior co-captain Alexa Johnson turned in another superlative performance to help lead the way. She turned in 14 points, had five rebounds and added three assists.
Miller tallied nine points put hauled in an exceptional 15 rebounds and tacked on four blocked shots.
Frosh Ferraro totaled eight points on the night, senior Kyra Martino had five points and senior co-captain Sarah Buscher scrapped out four rebounds, had a pair of assists and added two blocked shots in her usual, selfless fashion.
Even though the Clippers have up to four days to prepare for the quarterfinals, when an opportunity to reach for perfection is there, 14-year Clipper helmsman Buscher knows all too well now is not the time for a family weekend ski trip to Vermont.
Sitting at home not an hour after his girls had just completed step number 22 of their season’s mission, Buscher was already busy watching game film of his team’s next opponent.
“I’m really proud of the way we handled the last minute tonight,” Buscher said. “It was a good game tonight, a really good game.”
— Sean Walsh is the sports editor for www.capecod.com. His email is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @coachwalshccbm
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