DiBona Sisters Pace Upper Cape Tech Girls Over Old Colony Voke

BOURNE – It may have seemed like the Alaskan tundra outside last night, but inside the Upper Cape Tech gymnasium the Rams’ DiBona sisters were busy heating it up in State Vocational Girls’ Basketball Tournament action.

Krystle and Amber DiBona (15) attacked Old Colony Voke’s Kaitlin Medeiros in a stifling second half full court press in last night’s 50-39 win for the host Rams.
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Amber DiBona led the Rams with 13 points and sister Krystle DiBona had 11 points as the Rams defeated the visiting Old Colony Voke girls, 50-39, in front of a sparsely attended audience.

The win puts Upper Cape at 17-3 on the season heading into this afternoon’s Voke Tourney final, while the Cougars fell to 10-11. Upper Cape head to Norfolk Aggie for the Vocational Tournament Championship today at 4:30 pm.

Upper Cape got on top in the first quarter, 12-8, over the Old Colony girls and held onto a slim, 21-18 lead at halftime, but in the third quarter the hosts jumped out to a 40-28 lead. Krystle DiBona scored six of her 11 points in the third frame, while her sister Amber DiBona buried a pair of inspirational three-pointers that brought her teammates on the bench to their feet.

Old Colony was led by led by point guard Bri Jardin who had a game-high 16 points, with nine of her points coming from the charity stripe. Jardin went 9-11 from the line and had a key three-pointer in the second quarter that helped keep her Cougars in contention. Megan Santos also hit a three-pointer in the second frame but it was not enough to solve the tough Rams’ full-court press.

The Rams rolled on a 16-0 third quarter run to open the second half, many if not all of those points scored in transition on turnovers created by Upper Cape’s stifling full-court press.

The Rams’ Amber DiBona netted a double-double with 10 rebounds to go along with her 13 points and Alexandra Hill came within one point of a double-double with 10 rebounds and nine points. Krystle DiBona tacked on seven steals and had six assists to go along with

Upper Cape Tech’s Alexandra Hill tries to split an Old Colony Voke double team in last night’s 50-39 win for the host Rams.
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her 11 points.

Upper Cape’s volunteer staff had considerable trouble with scoreboard operation malfunctions throughout this affair and point totals on the board repeatedly did not reflect the actual

score. Old Colony Voke tallied three more points than were actually reflected on the final scoreboard total.

Jardin almost single-handedly kept the Cougars in contention in this affair, tying the game at 16-16 in the second quarter with just under two minutes to go in the first half, but Alexa Gelson hit a key bucket on a put-back that kept her Rams ahead to stay as time ran out before the intermission. Gelson finished with four points.

Just before halftime as Jardin seemed to be turning the tide for the guests, Rams’ interim head coach Mike Herndon implored his girls to cease being so “timid” and to be more defensively aggressive. The plan worked.

“We need to play our game,” he told the girls during a timeout. “Not their game, our 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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