YARMOUTH – It only looked easy.
Morgan Cahill scored 22 points Wednesday night to lead Yarmouth to a 53-33 victory over Falmouth in the preliminary round of the Western Class B girls’ basketball tournament. Most of the points came on short jumpers or offensive rebounds — and none of it was easy.
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Cahill, a senior center, had to work her way through a defense that surrounded her with as many as three players as soon as she stepped on the court.
“It’s part of the game,” said Cahill, who scored 31 points against Falmouth in last Friday’s regular-season finale. “It’s one of those things that you get used to, I guess.
“I knew they were going to come out very tough. They obviously knew what happened last game. But I think my teammates did a nice job stepping up and we really played together.”
That they did. Sean Cahill, Morgan’s younger sister, scored 14 points — doubling her season average — and guards Jeanna Lowery, Lane Simsarian and Grace O’Donnell played a harassing defense that frustrated the ninth-ranked Yachtsmen into 24 turnovers.
The eighth-ranked Clippers (9-10) will play top-ranked Lake Region (16-2) in the quarterfinals at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Portland Expo. Yarmouth was 1-17 a year ago.
“Anything we do from here on out is a big deal for us,” said Morgan Cahill.
Falmouth (9-10) had the early advantage but Morgan Cahill scored eight consecutive points, her spinning 12-footer in the lane giving the Clippers the lead for good with 4:18 left in the first quarter. Falmouth missed six consecutive shots in that stretch.
“We were rushed,” said Falmouth Coach Mari Warner. “We rushed ourselves a lot; we weren’t patient to use our screens. We just didn’t show any patience to get good shots. Offensively I wasn’t happy with what we did.”
Once in the lead, Yarmouth wouldn’t let the Yachtsmen get into any offensive flow. The Clippers pushed the ball to beat Falmouth up court, then got back on defense to harass Falmouth’s guards.
“I think midway through the first quarter we figured out we had the momentum and pretty good energy,” said Morgan Cahill, who also had 13 rebounds and four blocked shots.
Leading 26-15 at the half, Yarmouth scored the first six points of the third quarter — short jumpers by the Cahill sisters and a steal and layup by Lowery — to lead by 17. Falmouth got no closer than 15.
“Our game plan was to dish it to Morgan and right back out,” said Clippers Coach Jay Lowery. “We wanted to swing it to the other side and that’s where Sean Cahill came in. They had two, three people on Morgan, but we had very smart play tonight. And very good defense. It comes from the heart.”
Staff Writer Mike Lowe can be reached at 791-6422 or at:
mlowe@pressherald.com
Twitter: MikeLowePPH
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