Newburyport wins opener 39-23 over Amesbury in girls basketball

(Newburyport)  This wasn’t pretty to watch from a style standpoint but I’m sure the Newburyport girls will take the win they got in their opener, 39-23, over Amesbury on Tuesday night at NHS.

Both teams feature athletes from fall sports and you could see that the transition to basketball was a work in progress.

By my unofficial figuring, there were forty-six turnovers in this thirty-two minute game! Both teams had twenty-three miscues.  It seemed obvious that at this early date in the season the defenses (both played man-to-man) were far ahead of the offenses.  Those on hand saw too much dribbling and too many ill-advised passes.

No three’s were made by either team although plenty were taken.

Amesbury (0-1) had all sorts of trouble generating any offense except in the third quarter.  The Indians went through almost the entire second quarter without scoring a single point.

Newburyport won this game because of the play of Lilly Donovan (16 points) and Mary Pettigrew (11 points). That twosome worked together to create scoring opportunities for each other on several occasions.  Both made individual moves inside to produce points for the Clippers.

Newburyport (1-0) broke out of a 2-2 tie in the first quarter with a run of eight straight featuring a converted rebound by Lilly, two layups by Mary, and two free throws by Aly Leahy.

Later starting later in the first quarter the Clippers would string twelve unanswered together to get a commanding 22-6 advantage late in the second quarter.  Newburyport collected those twelve points via converted rebounds by newcomers Emily Pettigrew (freshman) and Morgan Johnston (sophomore), two layups by Lilly, a jumper by Emily, and a driving layup by Casey Barlow.

Only a last-minute drive by Emily Martin kept the Indians from being shut out entirely in the second quarter.  Newburyport led, 22-8, at the half.

Amesbury’s best quarter was the third.  They actually outscored the Clippers, 10-8.  Producing points for the Indians were Janine Fatal with a layup, followed by two inside scores from freshman Megan Reid, and a converted rebound and layup by Sarah Abraham.

The Clippers iced the game early in the final quarter as a Mary Pettigrew free throw, followed by two more freebies by Lilly Donovan, and a Lilly basket assisted by Mary put the home team in front, 35-18, with five minutes left.

Plenty of reserves saw action the rest of the way.

Sarah Abraham was Amesbury’s high scorer with six points.

Newburyport is coming off a 14-7 in 2011-12 while Amesbury was 1-18 last year.

Beth Castantini, 2012 NHS grad, was in the house.  She is now playing basketball for UMass Dartmouth.

There were several folks in the house with clipboards including one from Pentucket and two from Hamilton-Wenham.  They just happened to be in the neighborhood??

I thought that the lighting at the Newburyport gym was much better than it was last year.

(The pictures above and below enlarge considerably if you click on them.)