By Michael Letendre
BRISTOL — Foul trouble handcuffed the Bristol Eastern girls basketball team on Thursday night when the squad battled Rocky Hill in a CCC interdivisional encounter.
And with standout forward Amanda Noel playing just 39 seconds of the fourth quarter before picking up her fifth and final foul, her teammates rallied to square up a four-point lead with 3:53 to go in the game.
But two dagger three-pointers by the Terriers’ Katherine Harding led to a game-ending 9-3 run as Rocky Hill scooped up a 49-47 victory from the Thomas M. Monahan Gymnasium in Bristol.
Harding (20 points) drained three long range bombs over the final 6:28 of the game to just keep her squad ahead late.
“She hit some big threes,” said Eastern coach Tony Floyd of Harding. “We kept in contact with her. We lost her like three times and she burned us three times. And she scored some way-out threes. The last one she hit was big.”
“She kept them in the game.”
Noel (four points, six rebounds) had three fouls towards the end of the half, was called for a technical foul with 4:56 remaining in the third, came back with 5:31 left in the fourth but was disqualified less than a minute later.
That meant Eastern’s other position players had to respond and for most of the game, the lineup performed extremely well despite the foul difficulties, sizing up a 44-40 lead with four minutes remaining.
“I thought we did a really good job with Amanda out of the game,” said Floyd. “She didn’t play half the game. She was in foul trouble. I thought we just got caught up a little bit. We got ourselves in foul trouble in the first half. And we sort of weathered the storm and we came back.”
Autumn Udoh had another one of those video game type efforts against Rocky Hill.
She collected 13 points, grabbed a career-high 24 rebounds — two rebounds off the school record — dished off two assists, rejected seven shots and tallied three steals, barely missing out on a triple-double.
The Terriers tried to be extra physical with Udoh, but the sophomore hung in, kept her composure and fought until the end.
“I thought Autumn played a great game inside,” said Floyd. “She rebounded well, kept us alive. She was getting double teamed and was still able to get through it and get to the backboard.”
Venessa Drury posted a team-high 19 points along with three rebounds, three assists and three steals while Savannah Drury (four points, three rebounds), Cassie Sward (four points), Alaina Joy and Natalie Vye all gave something to the effort.
Lauren Ayotte also had a game, zipping up three points, eight rebounds and a couple steals — giving her usual supreme effort.
“I thought they did a very good job without” Noel said Floyd of his team. “We were playing with, maybe, six kids.”
Eastern trailed 7-2 off a Faith Beliveau 3 just 90 seconds into things but the Lancers had a response.
An 8-1 run, highlighted by two consecutive hoops from Udoh, gave the Kingstreeters a 10-9 edge with 1:33 to go in the stanza.
Savannah Drury ended the first with two free throws to knot the contest at 12-12.
The Lancers opened the second stanza with an 8-2 burst and when Vanessa Drury made a slick pass over to Udoh for a jumper, Eastern’s 22-14 cushion with 3:48 before the half loomed big.
Vanessa Drury ended the second stanza with two big lay-ups as Eastern nabbed a 28-19 push going into the break, limiting the Terriers to just 6-of-27 shooting from the field.
“I thought we did a good job defensively in the first half,” said Floyd.
Noel picked up her “T” with just under five minutes to play, drawing her fourth foul and sending her to the pine for nearly seven minutes.
Eastern eventually lost the lead late in the third when Harding hit a leaner in the lane but free throws by Udoh and Ayotte got Eastern the edge back to end the third, making it a 35-33 contest with one quarter remaining.
Vanessa Drury continued to make jumpers to open the fourth with her final hoop propelling Eastern to a 42-38 edge with 4:23 to play.
“I thought we made some key shots,” said Floyd. “Vanessa made a couple nice moves to the basket to score. A couple of the young kids hit some shots.”
About 30 second later, Ayotte canned a sweet baseline jumper and with 3:53 left, the Lancers were ahead by four again (44-40).
However, an 8-0 Terriers’ burst — fueled by two lethal three-point bombs by Harding, propelled Rocky Hill to a 48-44 lead at the 1:48 mark of the fourth.
“In the second half, I thought in the fourth quarter, we needed to dig down and we didn’t,” said Floyd. “We didn’t do a good job getting a stop on those guys, containing them and talking on defense.”
Eastern forced the Terriers into a five second violation with a minute to go while Vanessa Drury split a pair of free throws to trim the deficit to 48-45.
Seconds later, Sward missed on a follow-up three but Vanessa Drury made a steal.
Sward was fouled but coolly sank two charity tosses with 22.5 seconds remaining, making it a 48-47 game.
Off an immediate foul, Kelsey LeMay hit one of two free throws as Rocky Hill was on top (49-47) with 21.7 seconds left.
Eastern gave up the ball to Rocky Hill, the squad missed on a couple attempts and with time about to expire, a desperation 3 from the Lancers fell short as the Terriers held on to win by two, 49-47.
“They’re a good team. We didn’t get beaten by a bad team,” said Floyd. “You’ve got to give them credit. They did a nice job out there and we just struggled a little bit. But I give my kids credit because they did a really good job without Amanda in there and were able to still compete.” “The young kids showed me a lot.”
Bristol Eastern Girls Basketball – CCC Interdivisional Encounter
ROCKY HILL 49, BRISTOL EASTERN 47
from the Thomas M. Monahan Gymnasium, Bristol
Rocky Hill (6-2) 12 7 14 16 – 49
Bristol Eastern (7-2) 12 16 7 12 – 47
ROCKY HILL (49): Kelsey LaMay 5 4 15, Katherine Harding 8 0 20, Angelina Daley 1 0 2, Madisyn Aurigemma 2 2 6, Faith Beliveau 1 3 6. Totals: 17 9 49.
BRISTOL EASTERN (47): Vanessa Drury 9 1 19, Cassie Sward 1 2 4, Amanda Noel 2 0 4, Lauren Ayotte 1 1 3, Savannah Drury 0 4 4, Autumn Udoh 4 5 13, Alaina Joy 0 0 0, Natalie Vye 0 0 0. Totals: 17 13 47.
Three-point goals: Kelsey LeMay (RH), Katherine Harding (RH) 4, Faith Beliveau (RH).
Records: Rocky Hill 6-2 overall; Bristol Eastern 7-2.
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