After trailing for most of the first half, Lincoln-Sudbury's girls' basketball team opened the second half with an 8-0 run and never looked back en route to a 52-40 win over Reading in the North final at Tsongas Arena yesterday.
The Warriors will play Wellesley for the EMass title Tuesday at TD Banknorth Garden.
"I think it just took focus," Lincoln-Sudbury's Shatasia Kearse said of her team's stellar second half. "We just had to go relax for a minute and pick up the momentum. A lot of it was we just weren't finishing and we weren't doing the little things. So we just had to pick each other up, and Whitney Donaldson does an awesome job of that."
The fourth-seeded Warriors (21-3) cut the deficit to 23-22 by the half and used a field goal from Elizabeth Newman to take the lead in the opening seconds of the third quarter. Kearse, who finished with a game-high 21 points and nine rebounds, followed with a 3-point play, and Sarah Wetmore and Donaldson hit 3 of 4 from the line to top off the run.
"We talked a lot at halftime about how in the first half I felt like Reading was the team that was attacking and we were sort of just fending off attacks," said Lincoln-Sudbury coach Liza Feldman. "I asked the team at halftime if we could maybe be the team that was attacking and maybe have them try to fend us off."
The Warriors took Feldman's words to heart and led by as many as 9 points midway through the third. Although sixth-seeded Reading (20-4) rallied behind the strong play of Jaclyn Lyons (14 points) to cut the score to 34-30 at the end of the quarter, the Warriors sealed the deal in the fourth.
Wellesley 48, Walpole 44 - Wellesley and Walpole were neck-and-neck in the Bay State Conference's Herget Division. After splitting a pair of regular-season contests, Wellesley (21-3) finally edged its rivals for good, slipping past the Herget champs in the South final at UMass-Boston.
"It's huge that we played them already, even back to last year," said Wellesley coach Kristin Cieri. "We came into this season with absolutely no intimidation factor; it's just basketball against basketball and may the better team win."
The better team yesterday never trailed after the middle of the opening quarter.
Walpole kept pace, never falling behind by more than 9 points. But whenever the Rebels made a charge for the lead, the Raiders closed out a quarter emphatically.
Walpole was able to tie the game at 34 with less than two minutes remaining in the third, but 6-foot junior Jesse Miller scored 4 of her 8 points with consecutive baskets to end the rally.
The Raiders, who hit 15 of 16 free throws, relied heavily on sophomore guard Mary Louise Dixon (game-high 15 points) to be the floor general, relay defensive assignments, and set up plays.
"It's great playing with her," said Miller. "We look for each other. She always has a way of getting the ball up court.
"I wish I could have some of her skills."
Wellesley couldn't have traveled a tougher road to its title. After dispatching Duxbury in the first round, the Raiders upset top-seeded Bishop Feehan before defeating the second-seeded Rebels.
