Freshman Mackenzie Carreiro lifts Durfee to Big 3 win over new Bedford

FALL RIVER - Freshman Mackenzie Carreiro poured in a game-high 20 points as Durfee grabbed an early lead and never looked back in Friday night's 50-42 Big 3 girls' basketball victory over New Bedford.

Carreiro knocked down three 3-pointers and scored 11 of her points in the second half as the Hilltoppers improved to 2-7 overall and 1-1 in league play.

"She wants to do this beyond her time at Durfee," said Durfee's first-year coach Marcel Smith of Carreiro. "She came into camp and said she hopes to play after high school. We've thrown her into the fire and you saw the results tonight."

Durfee never trailed in the game after Crystal Diaz opened the scoring with a basket. The game was tied once at 12-12 after a basket by New Bedford's Emma Ferland, but the Hilltoppers went on a 10-1 run and eventually held a 26-19 lead at the break.

Neither team shot the ball well in the is one with Durfee shooting 7-for-29 in the first half. Many of those shots were altered by the presence of the Whalers' 6-foot-3 center Janice Leao.

"We wanted to try and pull her away from the basket," said Smith. "When you have someone that long, you want to get them away from the basket and that's what we tried to do."

Twice in the second half, Durfee held a 15-point lead, but the Whalers chopped it to 45-37 on a Taysha Gaylor 3-pointer with 2:01 to play, but Liz Rodrigues knocked down a pair of free throws to swell the Hilltopper lead back to double digits with 34 seconds to go.

"I thought it was a good all-around effort tonight," Smith said. "We had a great week of practice and I keep telling them that practice correlates to how you play."

Anoush Alemian chipped in with eight points for the winners.

Leao paced New Bedford with 11 points, eight of them coming in the second half.