Pats use strong second half to surge past Titans

Jacob Marrocco
Posted 1/8/15

The Pilgrim High School girls’ basketball team outscored Toll Gate High School 30-4 in the second half to pick up their third victory of the season, 42-13, at home on Tuesday night.

The Titans …

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Pats use strong second half to surge past Titans

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The Pilgrim High School girls’ basketball team outscored Toll Gate High School 30-4 in the second half to pick up their third victory of the season, 42-13, at home on Tuesday night.

The Titans cut their deficit to one point, 12-11, only a couple of minutes after the intermission, following a free throw each from senior Amber Francois and sophomore Katelyn Stamps. But Pilgrim senior Alexa Annotti and sophomore Crystal Armstrong took over and combined for 16 points, creating separation and staving off Toll Gate’s comeback efforts.

“[Annotti] has a nose for the ball,” Pilgrim head coach Ian Smith said. “She always gets there. The ball always seems to find her and she seems to find the ball. She does a great job working hard for every basket she gets. [Armstrong] is getting better every game, every day. She was able to step up there in the second half and grab some big rebounds and score some big buckets for us to help change the game.”

Annotti, who led all scorers, poured in 10 points and notched eight of them after the break. After being stifled in the first half, she was able to create shots and get open off inbounds passes. Armstrong collected all of her eight points in the second half, creating chances for herself through grabbing offensive rebounds.  

Toll Gate struggled offensively. The Titans were held to one field goal during the second half, a hook shot from senior Holly Gerber-George with 9:50 to go in the game to make the score 18-13. From then on out, Pilgrim took advantage of 15-plus Titan turnovers to score 24 unanswered points.

“We didn’t do a very good job of playing our game [in the first half],” Smith said. “In the second half, they made the adjustments. I thought our defense got better. We forced them into some turnovers, which was part of the game plan, and that led to our better offense.”

Foul trouble hurt the Titans down the stretch, as they found themselves in the bonus halfway through the second half, and in the double bonus with more than six minutes remaining. From that point on, the Patriots knocked in seven of their 14 attempts from the charity stripe.

Freshman Quinn Freeman and sophomore Marisa Giard, who combined for five points in the first half, both fouled out for Toll Gate with several minutes left in the game. Gerber-George, Stamps and freshman Christina Barry also each registered four fouls.

“We just got to keep working on our man-to-man principles, which we do every day in practice,” Toll Gate head coach John Paolino said. “We’ll get more experience at it. They have to do a better job at their footwork. We make a lot of silly fouls. We get frustrated and we’ll go knock somebody over. So that’s just practice.”

As the bench grew thinner, the Titans were not able to get back on defense as easily as the first half, when they limited Pilgrim to just 12 points. When they had their chances, Pilgrim junior Kendra Tantimonico was there to pester them. She collected seven steals and six points on the night, with four coming in the final 16 minutes.

Francois looked to help the Titans claw back in at the start of the second half, when they were only down 12-9. She scored their first point, pulled down an offensive rebound, blocked a Patriot shot and was beating Armstrong inside. Pilgrim adjusted, though, and as Toll Gate rushed to get her the ball inside, a swarm of Patriots were often there waiting.

Toll Gate’s defense, which faltered in the second half, helped keep the score close early on. The Patriots turned the ball over on each of their first three possessions of the game, allowing the Titans to jump out to an early 5-1 lead. It took Pilgrim four minutes to convert their first field goal, a layup from Annotti.

Each team exchanged squandered chances in the first half, as passes out of bounds were a common sight and errant shots missed everything to fall into the arms of an opposing player. Toll Gate managed three separate three-second violations and each squad had at least one violation during a free-throw attempt, whether it be stepping over the line or leaving too early.

“We played the way they wanted us to in the first half, not the way that we want to play,” Smith said. “That caused the turnovers. It was two halves. In the first half, we played the way they wanted us to. In the second half, we made them play our way.”

Still, after more than 25 combined turnovers were committed and several opportunities missed, Pilgrim clung to a slim three-point advantage at halftime. The Patriots had junior Alexia Martins to thank for that, as she contributed seven of their 12 points and stole the ball five times. She finished with eight points.

Freeman led the way for the Titans in the first half, collecting three points off of Toll Gate’s only conversion from beyond the arc. Stamps and Barry also chipped in with two points apiece.

The Patriots will face off against the Hurricanes at Warwick Vets at 7 p.m. tonight, while Toll Gate will host Rocky Hill on Friday at 3:30 p.m.

“It’s a work in progress,” Paolino said. “We have to play man, we can’t sit back and play a zone because teams just shoot over us. We want to try to create offense off our defense. We told the girls at halftime – ‘16 minutes, great half, but you’ve got to play 32 minutes.’ You got to play 32 minutes of good basketball with very limited turnovers, and that’s our Achilles heel, it always has been.”

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