Hillcat flurry buries rival Hawks

Heather Murdough maneuvers around Melissa Baron.The mood in the Hillsboro-Deering locker room after a jittery and often sloppy first half against archrival Hopkinton in Tuesday’ season opener wasn’t rooted in aggravation so much as assurance.
“I think it was just our mindset,” H-D senior tri-captain Libby Dutton said. “We had the first-quarter jitters, first game of the year, and we were like, ‘Alright, we’ve got that over with. Now let’s go play.’”
Simple enough.
The trick is making it look that easy, and the Hillcats proved to be up to that task, quickly putting both the sluggish start and the Hawks behind them with a furious run early in the third that paved the way to a 48-38 victory.
Hopkinton evened the score with the first hoop of the third quarter before the Hillcats ran off spurts of 9-0 and 10-0 with only a lone Hawk score sandwiched between, turning a competitive contest into a laugher with a 19-4 third period.
The flurry came to a spectacular finish when Heather Murdough netted a putback bucket, H-D pressured the Hawks into a traveling violation and sophomore forward Tiffany Lewis buried a buzzer-beating 3-pointer, all in a matter of seven seconds, to send the Hillcats into the fourth with an insurmountable 44-27 advantage.
“They really finished things off, right down to that last-second shot,” Hopkinton coach Dave Hughes said. “I think what happened is panic set in a little bit [on our side], and I think Hillsboro hit some tough shots.”
Lewis drove home the dagger, but H-D got critical buckets from a host of players on a night in which junior point guard Skyler Makkinje (four points) was essentially neutralized and the Hillcats had to play most of the second quarter with Murdough and tri-captain Liz Kingsbury on the bench with three fouls.
Dutton led the way with 13 points, but Lewis tossed in 11 and Murdough chipped in nine points and 12 critical rebounds. Kingsbury added eight points and teamed with Dutton to settle things down with Makkinje under wraps all night.
“The biggest thing was our senior leadership in the third quarter,” H-D coach Liz McNamara said of Dutton and Kingsbury. “That was huge. They’ve played a lot of games together, they’ve played a lot of games for me, and they’ve been in some big games. They took the team on their back and said, ‘Alright, we’re going to do this.’”
Indeed, Hopkinton was nearly helpless when H-D had its starting lineup on the floor. The Hawks took advantage of Murdough and Kingsbury’s absence to erase a six-point deficit midway through the second period, pulling within two at the break, but with a full complement of players and a renewed focus after intermission H-D stormed from the gate in the third quarter and quickly asserted control.
A Melissa Baron putback tied things at 25 before Dutton drove along the left baseline and canned a runner to jumpstart the Hillcat flurry. The Hawks turned the ball over at the other end, setting up an easy Kingsbury hoop, and after a Hopkinton miss Dutton dropped a floater in the paint.
The Hawks missed a pair of shots on their next trip before Murdough led a fast break and made a nice dish to Kingsbury to give H-D its biggest lead to that point at 33-25. A Murdough free throw moments later capped a 9-0 burst.
“We got that first half out of the way and I said to them [in the locker room], ‘You have 17-and-a-half games left, and this next half is most important,” Hillsboro-Deering coach Liz McNamara said. “I think they responded well.”
At both ends of the floor. An H-D zone that did a solid job all night of limiting Hopkinton leader Lily Smith (seven points) began to tighten the screws, and when the Hawks didn’t turn the ball over they rushed shots.
Baron (eight points) banked home a putback and the Hawks forced a miss to briefly stem the tide, but Gabby Forrester and Baron hurried back-to-back looks at the basket at the other end and Makkinje made a pretty feed to Dutton on the break for another H-D hoop.
Makkinje then poked the ball away in the paint and set up Kingsbury, who was fouled and hit one of two at the line, giving H-D a 38-27 advantage in the final minute of the third and setting up the frantic finish.
Murdough’s putback in traffic came with seven ticks on the clock, and full-court pressure forced Jacqui Foti into a travel with 1.7 remaining. The ball went to Lewis a few steps behind the arc at the left elbow, and she swished a heave as the horn sounded.
H-D outscored the Hawks, 19-4, in the quarter.
“That really set the tone at the end of the third quarter,” Dutton said. “We said, ‘We have this. Now we need to finish it.’”
It wasn’t easy, but they did. Hopkinton used full-court pressure to fluster H-D into a handful of turnovers and ultimately got as close as 48-36 with 2:09 left when Kaley Cook buried a jumper from the top of the key and drew a foul.
Cook missed the freebie, though, and H-D limited the Hawks to a Foti jumper from the foul line in the final two minutes to escape.
It was a critical escape. The Hillcats face Mascoma, defending champ Conant and Newport in its next three games, setting up a dangerous stretch before the holidays.
“I think this is a big win for us, because we’re looking at Mascoma, Conant and Newport,” McNamara said. “If we’re going to hit it, we might as well hit it hard. We’re certainly not easing into anything. And obviously this is a huge confidence booster for us.”
Said Dutton: “This really sets the tone for us. We’ve never opened up to our archrival, and beating them gives us a complete confidence boost.”
Lewis added seven rebounds and three steals to an impressive all-around effort, while Kingsbury dished out four assists and swiped two steals of her own. Dutton added four rebounds and three steals.
Hannah Richard led Hopkinton with 11 points, all of which came before halftime, including six in the second quarter.