FALMOUTH — In a battle of two of the Cape’s top girls basketball teams, in the end it was the undefeated squad that remained as such.
But only by one point.
The St. John Paul II Lions came from behind last night on the road at Falmouth Academy (6-2), squeaking by the host Mariners, 41-40. By all accounts, it was a thriller to the end.
St. John Paul II point guard Jess Tierney finished with 12 assists in the Lions’ thrilling 41-40 victory over Falmouth Academy last night.
Sean Walsh/capecod.com sports
Falmouth Academy had the Lions reeling at the start, however, going on a 10-0 tear that had Lions’ head coach Mike Tierney wondering what his girls were doing wrong. What Tierney ended up doing to settle his girls’ nerves was run a series of varying defensive sets that he had hoped would throw a wrench into Mariners’ head coach Gus Adams’ game plans.
“He’s a good coach,” Tierney said. “We wanted to try and isolate Kendall Currence so we ran a triangle and two on her, a box and one, a standard man-to-man. Basically, we ran about five different defenses. It was a good chess match.”
Currence, a freshman, nevertheless finished with 19 points to lead all scorers, while St. John Paul II’s Hayley Whiteley turned in an exceptional double-double performance on the other end. Whiteley poured in 15 points and tore down 12 rebounds to go along with five assists.
It was the Lions’ surehanded point guard, Jess Tierney, however, who served as the architect for her squad’s comeback from that early 10-0 first quarter deficit. Tierney had 12 assists to go along with four points. By halftime, the Lions had come back to tie the Mariners, 19-19 and the gloves literally came off between the two opposing strategists.
“We like to think that the third quarter belongs to us,” Tierney said. “We are a third quarter team. I told the girls that the third quarter is our quarter.”
By the time the Lions were through, they had built a lead by as much as nine points after Tierney buried a well-time downtown trey, but Currence answered that momentum with a pair of buckets and her own three-pointer in the fourth quarter.
“It was a dogfight right to the end,” Tierney said. “The only thing we didn’t try to do to Currence was kick her in the shins. She’s quite a player.”
St. John Paul II’s Kaia Whiteley, Hayley’s sister, scored seven points and added eight rebounds. Falmouth Academy’s Eliza Van Voorhis finished with nine points and Christie Brake had eight.
The Lions, now 7-0, will face the Cape Tech Crusaders on Tuesday night.
Falmouth Academy faces Cape Cod Academy on the road Monday at 4:00 pm.
— Sean Walsh is the sports editor for www.capecod.com. His email is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @coachwalshccbm
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