Eagles push past Scituate in open tourney, move on to elite eight

Glory Ellison scores 20, Andrea Kubas-Meyer finishes with 18

By Josh Bickford
Posted 3/8/17

It was not pretty, but it was a win. 

That was the message shared by the head coach and leading scorer for the Barrington High School girls' basketball team after the top-seeded Eagles …

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Eagles push past Scituate in open tourney, move on to elite eight

Glory Ellison scores 20, Andrea Kubas-Meyer finishes with 18

Posted

It was not pretty, but it was a win. 

That was the message shared by the head coach and leading scorer for the Barrington High School girls' basketball team after the top-seeded Eagles rallied to knock off 16th seeded Scituate in the first round of the state open basketball tournament.

Coach Stephen Lenz said his team showed determination and poise while holding off the tough Division II challengers. 

"It went how I thought it would go," said Coach Lenz. "We just played LaSalle on Saturday night and won the Division I championship, and coming back in the gym you start another whole tournament up, and they're exhausted. They played three games … and we didn't have Olivia today. We'll have her on Saturday. But we hung in there and that's what we had to do. 

"Scituate is not a 16 seed. They're not. They're in the middle of the pack in Division II and they're scrappy. She (Scituate coach Stacy D'Allesandro) gets the most out of her kids. They won every loose ball and every fifty-fifty."

Eagles forward Glory Ellison again led her team in scoring. Ellison, who dropped in 13 in the Division I final and 19 in the D-I semis, scored 20 points against Scituate, including 16 in the first half.

Ellison said she knows her team can play better, but was happy with the victory.

"It was not a good game, but it's a good thing we won," she said.

Ellison hit a key basket at the 9:45 mark of the second half. The junior sliced through the Scituate defense and dropped in a layup, halting a mini-run that had cut the Eagles' lead to 39-35 with 10 minutes left to play.

After building a 32-23 halftime lead, Barrington struggled to limit Scituate's scoring chances. On consecutive trips, the Spartans grabbed offensive rebounds and converted them to points. 

Andrea Kubas-Meyer helped stretch Barrington's lead to 43-35 when she scored a fast-break layup and put the Eagles up 46-35 when she knocked down a 3-pointer a few minutes later.

Kubas-Meyer paced the Eagles' offense in the second half, pouring in 11 of her 18 points after the break.

Freshman guard Cary Heterick — she filled in for Olivia Middleton who did not dress for the game — assisted on a handful of key baskets down the stretch, including nice passes to Kubas-Meyers and senior center Grace Coutu.

"She (Heterick) played awesome," said Coach Lenz. "It's tough, you're a freshman and you're playing point guard and it's a four-point game with six minutes left… I'm very proud of her effort."

Meanwhile Coutu came up with big baskets late in the game. Her back-to-back-to-back scores with 4:40 remaining helped Barrington stretch its lead to 17 at 56-39. Coutu also stymied the Scituate inside game, as she blocked more than a half-dozen shots.

Patricia Ceseretti and Alex Marinelli each hit three-pointers in the victory, while Elizabeth Hutchings scored three on a layup and a free throw. 

"I think we were definitely a little tired, a little bit emotionally tired too. It's a big let-down (after the D-I championship)," said Coach Lenz. "I think today was the big mental hurdle. I think you get this game out of the way and then you're back in it. You're like 'All right, we're one of the final eight teams left. Here we go again.'"

Barrington will play North Kingstown in the quarterfinals on Saturday, March 11 at noon. The game will be played at Pizzitola Gym at Brown University. 

It will be the third time the teams have faced each other this season. The Eagles lost in overtime to the Skippers on Feb. 7, and more recently defeated North Kingstown in the Division I playoff semifinals.

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