Little giants
BOSTON — The Millis girls basketball team might be from a small town and play in a small gym, but the Mohawks made a lot of noise yesterday afternoon on a big stage - even if some of that sound was absorbed by the sheer enormity of the TD Banknorth Garden.
Millis (19-6) used three 8-0 runs in the middle two quarters to defeat Georgetown, 60-43, in yesterday's Division 4 State Championship game. All eight points of the Mohawks' third scoring stretch at the end of the third quarter were logged by junior forward Molly Breen, including a three-point play with 48.6 seconds left in the quarter.
The spin move in the post prompted her classmates in the crowd to chant, "You can't stop her; you can't stop her," as she stepped to the foul line to sink the extra shot.
"It pumps me up," Breen said after finishing with scoring a game-high 28 points. "Our fans are really great. This was a big arena so you couldn't hear them that much but in a small gym they are incredible."
Apparently, the Mohawks' full-court press is as incredible in a large gym as it is in their own small one.
Trailing 10-8 after the first quarter, Millis struggled with the Royals' pressure before applying its own in the second quarter to take a 29-22 halftime edge.
"We're a press team, we pressed all year," Millis coach Dave Fallon said. "We have a lot of presses and we change it up and keep the players and the coaches on their feet."
Georgetown coach Barri Ann Alonzo attested to that.
"That took a couple of us by surprise, which was unusual because we're used to handling pressure throughout the year," said Alonzo, whose 14th-seeded team (9-16) beat the top three seeds in the North sectional - New Mission, Fenway, Shawsheen - to advance to yesterday's game. "I think a couple of us were shocked. It threw us for a loop. We handled the pressure all year long."
After entering the third quarter with a 29-22 edge, Millis' second 8-0 run of the game gave it a 40-27 edge with 2:49 left in the quarter.
But after extending the lead to 13 points, Georgetown cut the edge to 40-35 on a pair of Taryn O'Connell free throws with 1:33 left in the quarter.
But O'Connell, who came into the game averaging 29 points in the playoffs and 21 in the regular season, was held scoreless the rest of the way. She finished with 12 points.
"We just didn't have our best game," said the Bates-bound senior, adding that she moved from her normal forward slot to small forward yesterday to try to give the Royals an edge on the outside.
As O'Connell's production dried up, Millis went on Breen's 8-0 run, which took the Mohawks out of the third quarter with a 48-35 advantage.
Fallon said Breen had the same type of scoring runs in the team's South Sectional loss to Cohasset last winter.
"Molly, she just has those runs, she had one against Cohasset where she puts us on her back and goes," Fallon said. "And I get her back for another year. I'm happy about that."
Last year's South Sectional loss marked the team's deepest post-season run prior to this year. And yesterday's win marked just the third state title in any sport in the school's history. The boys volleyball team won the first one in 2001 and the girls volleyball team duplicated that feat earlier this school year.
Senior forward Deirdre Nash was a member of the volleyball team this year as well.
Nash, who scored three points yesterday, got a huge smile on her face when asked if she was spoiled by all the winning.
"I guess you could say that," she said.
The No. 11 seed coming out of the South Sectional bracket, Millis defeated Sacred Heart (51-45) in the semifinals, Norfolk County Aggie (54-26) in the quarterfinals and South Shore Christian (54-48) in the first round to advance to yesterday's title game.
In the first half - after starting the second quarter by outscoring Georgetown 6-2 to go up 14-12 - Millis ripped off its first 8-0 run early in the second quarter to jump out to a 22-12 edge with 3:26 remaining before intermission. Breen scored five of the eight points.
Once Georgetown finally broke Millis' streak, both teams hit their offensive strides, scoring a combined 17 points in the final three minutes of the half.
Breen scored the first two of Millis's baskets in that back-and-forth stretch by slicing through Georgetown's defense for layups. The second drive gave Millis a 27-17 lead with 1:11 left before the break. Then Millis senior guard Amy Ingraham, who finished with 18 points, used her own drive to extend the lead. But Georgetown center Haley Gisonno, who led the Royals with 13, banked a 3-pointer off the glass to cut the Millis advantage to 27-20 before Millis ended up leading by seven at halftime.
Ultimately, Millis' runs were too much for Georgetown to overcome in the second half.
"(Those runs) were important," Breen said. "Every time we would go on one they would catch up. We definitely wanted to put them away. I knew we could do it. I knew we could be champions. We just had to keep fighting back and keep the lead so they couldn't come back."
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