COHASSET — Whenever the winter season begins, it can be tough to warm up.
It did not take long whatsoever for Hailey Flynn. The Duxbury girls basketball captain tallied a team-high 13 points Friday night, as the Dragons opened their season with an impressive 43-33 victory against Cohasset on the road.
“Coming into this year with this group, I wanted to play fast and pressure a lot,” said Duxbury coach Brian Keller. “I thought we did a great job overall. Some of our shot selection has to get a little bit cleaner, but I’m very happy with their effort. This team will run through a wall if they had to.”
It didn’t start off so great for the Dragons (1-0), as they surrendered a 5-0 scoring run to begin the game. However, that was precisely when Flynn found her rhythm. The senior tallied four points in the opening quarter. Her teammate, Ella Fitzpatrick, corralled a rebound, then beat the buzzer with a put-back as Duxbury took a 13-11 lead into the second stanza.
Then Flynn took the game over. The captain struck for nine more points in the frame, while the Dragons held the Skippers scoreless in the quarter to seize a 25-11 advantage at the half.
“I think we really pride ourselves on our defense,” said Duxbury junior Madeline MacKinnon. “Duxbury is known for holding (teams) to a low amount of points. Having a scoreless quarter is huge for us. That is something I think we’re going to be the most proud of from this game.”
When playing a team as talented as Cohasset, however, the battle is never over. The Skippers (0-1) regained momentum to begin the third quarter. Union College commit Addy Andrews dropped four quick points in the opening two minutes, trying to will her team back into contention.
With 4:35 left in the stanza, Keller utilized a timeout for Duxbury after seeing his group’s lead trimmed to nine points at 28-19.
“We took a breath,” MacKinnon said. “They came out with a lot of energy, which we knew. We knew the pressure was coming, but we played our game.”
Then the Dragons returned to form.
Fitzpatrick stepped up for Duxbury with five points late in the third, as the Dragons found themselves with a 35-26 lead entering the final frame.
“I think something that’s impossible to cover is the amount of guards that we have on this team,” said Flynn. “Anybody can really bring the ball up, which is something that is huge. We’re all confident in each other and in ourselves in bringing the ball up. That was huge when they started pressing us.”
From that moment on, Duxbury was able to use its tantalizing defense to stave off any hopes of a comeback bid. MacKinnon concluded her night with 10 points and four rebounds for the Dragons. Meanwhile, junior Regan Donovan added seven points to go with 10 boards in the victory.
Andrews finished with 11 points and seven rebounds to lead Cohasset, while Kate Greer tallied 10 points for the Skippers.
“We don’t really rely on one single person,” Keller said. “Anybody can all of a sudden take over for us. We’re a hard team to cover because of that. We don’t really say: ‘OK, you’re my 20-point scorer, and you’re going to score 20 for us.’ It’s (the fact that) anybody can score at any time. (Flynn’s) a senior captain, stepping up and taking control of the game when it was starting to slip away a little bit.”
