Eagles outscore Skippers in second half, advance to D-I finals

Glory Ellison scores 15 second half points as Eagles win 41-34

By Josh Bickford
Posted 3/3/17

The Barrington High School girls' basketball team picked a good time to avenge its only Division I regular season loss, knocking off North Kingstown 41-34 in a Division I playoff semifinal game on …

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Eagles outscore Skippers in second half, advance to D-I finals

Glory Ellison scores 15 second half points as Eagles win 41-34

Posted

The Barrington High School girls' basketball team picked a good time to avenge its only Division I regular season loss, knocking off North Kingstown 41-34 in a Division I playoff semifinal game on Thursday night at Rhode Island College.

The win propels the Eagles into the Division I finals on Saturday against LaSalle.

Barrington's Glory Ellison played a key role in the victory over North Kingstown. The junior forward scored 19 points to lead the Eagles, including 15 in the second half. Ellison missed a couple of jumpers to start the second half, but then heated up, burying a short jumped in the lane and taking the ball hard to the basket for a handful of layups.

Barrington coach Stephen Lenz said he switched up the Eagles' offense in the second half, moving Ellison from the wing to the high post. North Kingstown struggled to cover both Ellison and Barrington's center, senior Grace Coutu, in the paint.

Ellison also helped her own cause, crashing the boards for a few put-backs off missed shots.

"We started to get it going in the second half," said Ellison, who added that she likes being able to work in the lane on the offensive end of the floor.

Barrington had a slow start against the Skippers, who scored eight points in transition in the first half. Coach Lenz said he had drilled his team that they needed to slow down North's running game — when the teams met during the regular season the Skippers scored 18 points in transition and won 62-59 in overtime.

"They only had two points (in transition) in the second half," said Coach Lenz, about his team's playoff victory.

Barrington led 15-13 with about two minutes left in the first half, but the Skippers' junior center Emma MacIntyre powered for a basket to knot the score heading into the break.

Barrington's defense was stifling in the second half, forcing the Skippers into a series of turnovers. Olivia Middleton scored to give the Eagles a lead and Ellison hit a driving layup to extend the margin to 19-15. 

North Kingstown turned the ball over and Coutu blocked a Skippers shot. The Eagles went up 22-15 at the 13 minute mark when Ellison scored and was fouled, and knocked down her free throw. 

MacIntyre cut the lead to five when she knocked down a pair of free throws and the Skippers closed the score to 22-20 when Morgan Higgins drained a long three-pointer.

Ellison followed up a miss to extend Barrington's lead to 24-20 with 11 minutes remaining, but North refused to go away, as Seanna Deering buried a three-pointer 30 seconds later. Deering gave the Skippers a 25-24 lead with 9:45 remaining, but the Eagles grabbed the lead back when Coutu snagged an offensive rebound and put it up and in. 

The Skippers drew to within one point of the Eagles, at 28-27 with 8:21 remaining, but that was as close as the score would get. Barrington's Andrea Kubas-Meyer and Ellison each scored and the Eagles' defense tightened up, holding North Kingstown scoreless for the next four minutes. 

The Skippers refused to go away, however, cutting the Eagles' lead to 32-30 with 4:18 left and 36-34 with 2:42 left. But Coutu, Middleton and Ellison each scored down the stretch to preserve the win. 

"It's nice to avenge the loss," said Coach Lenz. "I think we played hard and forced North Kingstown into some bad shots."

Coach Lenz then credited the Skippers for playing hard throughout — "They're very well-coached," he said. 

With the win, Barrington advanced to the Division I finals. The Eagles will play against LaSalle on Saturday at Rhode Island College at 5:30 p.m.

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