It was another night of frustration and inconsistency for the struggling Danvers High girls’ basketball team Friday night in the DHS field house. Undefeated Revere came in 12-0 and a large favorite over the home team, but the Falcons (now 7-5 after losing their fifth in a row) gave the visitors all they could handle before Revere pulled away in the last five minutes for a 52-36 victory.
‘Twas the same old story for the Danvers girls: 24 turnovers and 15-for-51 shooting and failures to take advantage of several openings the Patriots provided, but which the Falcons did not take advantage of.
In each of the first three quarters, Revere, featuring twin towers Meaghan Gotham and Valentina Pepic (24 points), got off to starts one would expect from a winless team, not one that’s undefeated. Revere shot 0-for-7 from the floor in the first 5:15, but Danvers never led by more than two points, went the last 2:27 scoreless and trailed 11-6 after one.
Second quarter Revere mopened 1-for-8 and led by only 14-11 after Sarah Unczur converted a three-point play down low. But Danvers, though doing a fine job in its floating zone holding town the twin towers, went scoreless there last 3:33 and was in a hole at the break, 22-11.
Revere opened the third quarter missing its first five shots and failing to convert a field goal until 3:34 had passed, and this time Danvers was opportunistic, scoring the first six points of the quarter in the first 1:25 as guards Nicole White (runner in the lane) and Siobhan Moriarty (10-footer and a fast break layup) got the Danvers crowd fired up. Revere was shaken somewhat, leading only 23-17 at this juncture. The Falcons kept the margin under 10 by the end of the canto (34-25) and weren’t dead yet.
With Revere scoring on two points in the first 2:20, Danvers made one last run, thanks to another three-point play inside by the junior Unczur (12 total) and a the home team’s only three-point bomb from Moriaerty at the 5:40 (to go) mark, drawing there locals within 36-31. But DHS scored only five points the rest of the way while Pepic scored 10 points from there to the finish
The Falcons wrap up their four-game homestead Tuesday at 7 against Lynn English.