By Sean Sweeney
FITCHBURG -- Fitchburg girls' basketball coach Tony Alario said at the beginning of the season that his Red Raiders lacked height, which would become a problem as the season progressed.
FHS ran into that stumbling block on Monday evening, although Fitchburg regrouped and knocked off Marlboro, 67-63 in one of Fitchburg's hardest games of the year at the Academy Street Brickyard.
"I didn't expect (an easy game)," said Alario. "No game is going to be easy because of our height. Any team that is taller than us will give us trouble."
Most of the Red Raiders' trouble came from Marlboro center Jamie Bennett and forward Lauren Rigney. Each scored 22 points. But it was Bennett who did the damage in the first half, which was why Fitchburg was only up 25-24 at the break. Bennett pulled down 10 rebounds in the first half and finished up with 17 boards.
"We had trouble boxing out. We've been out-rebounded every game, so it isn't surprising to me," added Alario.
Fitchburg (9-3) started out in good shape, but Marlboro (4-9) came creeping up from behind, snatching the lead away from FHS with Emily Carbone going coast-to-coast to take control, 12-10 Marlboro.
The Panthers had the action to themselves before Fitchburg regrouped with the 1-2 punch of Sara Thomas (18 points) and Shelly Richard. Thomas scored four hoops in four minutes to give FHS the lead back 23-22 with a minute to go in the half.
Both teams exchanged the lead in the last minute, with Deanna Wilbur taking a nifty pass from Taryn Paul in the paint with 10 sesconds left in the half to put Fitchvburg up by one at the break.
"I told the girls (at the half) that we were being outrebounded. If we stick to the game plan that we've been using for weeks, we would win," noted Alario.
Bennett finished out the first half with a double-double, scoring 10 points with her 10 boards. Then Richard started shooting, scoring 17 of her team-high 22 points in the second half. Wilbur passed over to Richard who belted a trifecta from the top of the key to extend the Raider lead to four (28-24).
But Marlboro retaliated with Kate Bauks, who returned the favor by dropping a three of her won. Bauks ended up with 9 points, all on three's. After Bauks hit her second three, Fitchburg went on a 10-7 run in the next three minutes, before Richard knocked in a three-point play, getting fouled as the shot went up, to take a 40-37 lead.
Marlboro made one last attempt to win the game with Rigney and Bennett receiving exclusive scoring rights.