By Kevin O'Malley
LEOMINSTER -- The Leominster Blue Devils shocked their arch-rivals Monday night, blasting the Fitchburg Red Raiders, 64-43.
"My first win over Fitchburg in four years," commented a very pleased Leominster coach Chris Young following the win. "I'm very happy for our three seniors, Allison Carlson, Sohie Fotakis and Dacia Walker. They were freshman my first year, so we've come up together."
Leominster will look to get another monkey off its back on Thursday at Wachusettt Regional. Since coach Young took over the reigns at Leominster, Wachusett has run the table on Leominster also.
"They really played well enough to beat us tonight," said Fitchburg coach Tony Alario. "We really missed Sara Thomas. I think she missed her first day of school in four years, and I know she missed her first practice. She's been very sick." Thomas, the team's leading rebounder, was sorely missed in Monday's encounter, sitting out nearly 10 minutes of the first half and only playing about half of the second. The Red Raiders have now lost four games in a row and still need one more win to qualify for the districts.
Leominster also has its back against the wall, needing two more wins in four games with Wachsett still on the schedule as well as possible encounter with Connecticut power LaSalle Academy (16-3) in the Mount Wachusett Tournament. "We need to be ready to play every day," continued Young. "I think we still have a good chance of going to the districts."
Leominster was led by its inside attack of Brandy Trice and Stacy Cline. Both girls reached double figures in rebounding while combining to score 36 points. In addition to 20 points and 14 rebounds, Trice also swatted three shots providing defensive stability in the back of the Blue Devils 1-3-1 zone. Sophie Fotakis and Dacia Walker did the job from the perimeter scoring 14 and eight points respectively while working to get the ball into the low post. Walker finished with six assists while Fotakis added four. Gene Luna added an outside touch Leominster has lacked for quite some time, draining a pair of three- pointers.
Fitchburg was led by Shelly Richard's 16 points while Thomas added nine in limited action. Deanna Wilbur stepped up offensively, scoring 10 points for Fitchburg, all of them coming from inside the key.
After leading by just five points at the half, Leominster came out in the second half and absolutely shut down the Fitchburg offense, holding the visitors to just 18 second-half points and just six field goals while the Leominster offense hit full stride. Trice scored 12 in the second half, including wix in a row as Leominster turned a six-point lead (40-34) into a 12 point lead,46-34. Fitchburg never recovered as Leominster added another seven in a row following a pair of free throws by Richard.