Lincoln-Sudbury trailed by only eight points with a little over six minutes remaining in the fourth quarter despite ultimately turning the ball over 34 times. Medfield, however, proceeded to go on a 12-0 run from that point on — aided largely by L-S giveaways — pulling away in the final minutes and winning 59-38.
SUDBURY — The Lincoln-Sudbury girls basketball team lost to defending Division 2 state champion Medfield by 21 points on Monday evening, but the score was a bit deceiving.
Lincoln-Sudbury did turn the ball over 34 times during the game, yet still trailed by only eight points with a little over six minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. Medfield, however, proceeded to go on a 12-0 run from that point on — aided largely by turnovers — pulling away in the final minutes and winning 59-38.
The loss leaves Lincoln-Sudbury at 3-2 on the year while Medfield improved to 7-2.
"Turnovers were obviously a killer tonight," said L-S assistant coach Kathleen Thompson, who spoke in place of head coach Steve Connelly when Connelly had to leave to go to the airport. "There were pockets where we controlled the game and other moments where we just gave them baskets. Part of that is being a fairly new team, but we'll get there."
With Lincoln-Sudbury trailing 39-28, one of two free throws by Annmarie Beyloune cut the deficit to 10. A baby hook shot by Sofia Rosa (8 points, 6 rebounds) on the next possession brought Lincoln-Sudbury to within eight at 39-31 with 6:12 to go.
From there, Medfield took advantage of a slew of L-S turnovers, recording several easy fast-break layups, and making it 51-31 with 4:08 to go after L-S’s 32nd turnover led to an easy bucket by Medfield's Maggie McCarthy (24 points).
From there the hole was far too much for L-S to dig out of and Medfield was able to come away with the victory.
"We didn't get Sofia nearly enough touches tonight, and that along with the turnovers hurt us," said Thompson. "Sofia is usually in the 20-point range but we just never got in a rhythm and never really got her the ball as much as we should have."
Things got ugly for Lincoln-Sudbury early; L-S turned the ball over 18 times in the first half. Hannah Brodsky (8 points, 14 rebounds), Gracie Bilbe, and Spencer Semple accounted for the five points Lincoln-Sudbury scored in the first quarter, and L-S was down big at 18-5 after one.
Despite the barrage of turnovers, Lincoln-Sudbury hung tough in the second quarter as a jumper by Brodsky kept it close at 18-9 with 5:47 left in the half. Medfield pushed it to 22-9, but a layup by Rosa cut it to 22-11 with 2:35 remaining and a jumper in the corner by Caroline Potter two possessions later cut it to 24-13.
Brodsky hit another layup with 57 seconds left in the half to make it a 26-15 game, and a rebound and coast-to-coast layup by Bilbe with just 12 seconds remaining made it a 26-17 game at halftime.
"We had more turnovers than points in the first half, and we know that just can't happen," said Brodsky. "We just need to calm ourselves down earlier in games and move the ball around. Coach always talks about loving our passes and being committed to them and we weren't tonight. That's where all the turnovers came from and we put ourselves in a big hole."
Medfield led 29-19 early in the third before a jumper by Kerstin Kelly got Lincoln-Sudbury within eight at 29-21. Medfield was able to maintain between a 10- and 12-point lead for the majority of the third quarter, with two late free throws by Kelly in the final 10 seconds of the third keeping Lincoln-Sudbury within striking distance down 36-26 heading to the fourth.
"This was sort of a similar game to the one we had against Acton-Boxborough," explained Brodsky. "We kept getting the deficit down but just couldn't pull the game out in the end. At halftime we talked about slowing the ball down and getting it around more. Sofia usually gets a lot of our points and only had two shots in the first half, so we were really looking in the second half to have a more consistent offense."
Despite the loss, Lincoln-Sudbury feels there were positives to take out of Monday.
"We were really good with gang rebounding tonight, which is something we can take away," said Thompson. "We just need to be better offensively and obviously take better care of the ball and we'll be fine."