Balanced attack leads the Devils

By Walter J. O’Neill, Jr

It was a balanced offensive attack that allowed the Blue Devils of Shore Regional to beat the Lacey squad 33-29 in overtime at the 2016 Lady Wave Holiday Tournament.

Shore Regional entered the tournament as the three seed, beating Brick Township, 14 seed, in the opening round of play. That set up round two with 11 seed Lacey. It was an exciting game that went into extra minutes.

The first quarter ended with the Devils and Lacey even at five points. It wasn’t a high-scoring game, but it was filled with excitement and defense. Emily Guo and Jaclyn Shapiro each had two points while Allie Reiser made one of two foul shots to start the game.

The second quarter had Shore outscoring Lacey 9-7. The Blue Devils spread the scoring to five players; Caitlin Donegan had two hoops, Shapiro and Erin Rogers each had a basket while Guo hit one of her two foul shots. Going into the halftime break the Devils were up 14-12.

The third quarter was dead even as both teams scored eight points. The last four minutes of the game the Devils committed three turnovers in one minute and Lacey took a 25-24 lead. Then with 1:30 left to play Lacey was hit with a technical foul and Reiser went to the line making both shots and giving Shore a 26-25 edge.

The Blue Devils were hit with a five-second violation as they couldn’t inbound the ball, and Lacey called timeout. When the game resumed the Devils fouled a Lacey player, who hit both foul shots and were now up 27-26 with 50 seconds left to play.

Shore missed a shot and Lacey rushed the ball to the opposite end and was fouled. They made one of two shots and took a 28-26 lead on Shore with 40 seconds left in regulation play.

Reiser made a great cut to the hoop to get the basket and tied the game at 28 with 28 seconds left to play. Lacey called a timeout with four seconds left but when play resumed the Devils defense kept them from getting a shot off.

Four minutes of overtime action then followed. Donegan made two foul shots putting the Devils up 30-28. Then Brenna Jackson was fouled and made one of two at the line giving Shore a 31-28 advantage with two minutes to play.

Lacey then got fouled and made one of two from the line. They were now down 31-29 with 1:35 to go. Lacey grabbed a rebound off a Shore miss and raced to the opposite end of the court. Reiser was playing great defense and had perfect position getting a charging call on Lacey with 55.4 to play.

Donegan was fouled and missed both shots. Lacey grabbed the rebound and was called for traveling with 44 seconds left. That is when Shapiro had the ball stolen by Lacey, who was again called for traveling giving Shore the ball.

With 15 seconds left Lacey fouled Reiser who made both foul shots giving Shore the 33-20 lead. Lacey was unable to get the ball in the hoop giving Shore the win.

Leading the Blue Devils was Guo with eight points. Reiser added seven, Shaprio scored six as did Donegan. Breanna Jackson had four points and Rogers finished with two. Balanced scoring.

In the semifinals of the tournament Shore lost 40-13 to Howell.