First quarter run helps lead Bishop Guertin girls basketball to win over Dover

NASHUA – Dan Casey called a timeout with a little under three minutes to play in the first quarter of Friday’s high school girls basketball game between Dover and Bishop Guertin.

The Cardinals had just scored in transition, on a basket by Jamie Sherburne, to go up 11-3 over the Green Wave and Casey wanted to help his team regroup.

Instead, the Cardinals pounced. Bishop Guertin forced Dover to turn the ball over on three straight possessions, getting a fastbreak layup on each, and then added a fourth basket in transition. The Cardinals scored eight points in 80 seconds to go up 19-3 on the way to a 51-35 victory over the Wave in Division I action.

Sherburne finished with 20 points, including three of those four baskets in the Cardinals’ 8-0 run, as Bishop Guertin led 21-5 after one quarter.

“The first quarter obviously killed us,” Casey said. “Too many turnovers, careless mistakes, not valuing each possession and we dug ourselves a hole that we couldn’t get out of. The end of the first quarter ended up being the final spread for the outcome. We just dug ourselves too deep a hole.”

For Bishop Guertin coach Jeremy Faulkner, it was the way he wants to see the Cardinals execute on both ends of the floor.

“The first quarter, I was very happy with them,” Faulkner said. “The tempo was fantastic, the defensive rotation, the pressing, we’re starting to get it down, which was creating a lot of turnovers, which was creating fast breaks. I’m very happy with that. What we need to work on right now is staying consistent.”

Bishop Guertin (3-1) struggled with that coming out of halftime, as the Cardinals committed some turnovers of their own. Dover (1-1) took advantage, opening the third quarter with an 8-1 run to cut the lead to 31-24 with 4:45 left in the frame.

“We tried to switch up our defense a little bit and I feel like the girls had confidence in the defense that we went to,” Casey said. “It gave them a different look than what we had shown for a good portion of the first half. I think it gave them problems initially, but they made adjustments.”

Faulkner expected the Wave to switch to a zone defense and change the tempo of the game, but it took some time for the Cardinals to adjust. But once they did, they outscored Dover 6-0 to end the third quarter up 13 points.

A jumper by Marie Laplante to open the fourth quarter put Bishop Guertin up 39-24, and although Dover got the lead back down to 10 later in the frame, the Wave never got it to single digits again.

“We called the timeout in the third quarter and challenged them a little bit to value the basketball,” Faulkner said of how the Cardinals closed out the game. “We challenged them and we started to get comfortable with our defense and picking up intensity and started getting steals. I could see the confidence levels getting better.”

Bishop Guertin also got seven points from Abby Field and Gigi Piercy added six. Dover was led by Katie Boyatsis and Abby Tilton, who each finished with eight.