Minutemen will face Slaters at the Aud

Mill River and Springfield faced off for a Division II girls basketball quarterfinal on Saturday.

Mill River’s Ella Bankert (4) attempts to drive through Springfield’s Chelsea McAllister (12) and Brooke Willey (14). It didn’t work. Both girls held their ground and Bankert ended up on the floor. Photo: Albert J. Marro / Staff PhotoPublished February 22, 2015 in the Rutland Herald Minutemen will face Slaters at the Aud By JAMIE NORTON Correspondent NORTH CLARENDON – Mill River and Springfield were very familiar with each other. They’d already met twice and split their regular-season series, neither winning by more than four points. So when they faced off for a Division II girls basketball quarterfinal on Saturday, everyone figured they’d be spending another 32 minutes on the edge of their seats. The Minutemen, however, made it a little easier for their fans to relax this time. No. 3 Mill River used clutch shooting and hardcore defense to bust it open in the second quarter, continued to build on its lead in the second half, and punched its ticket to the Barre Auditorium with a 64-43 victory over the No. 6 Cosmos. Sophomore point guard Ella Bankert scored 13 of her game-high 23 points in the first half and contributed six to the Minutemen’s momentum-seizing, 17-2 run in the second quarter. On the other end, Bankert and her teammates were relentless on defense and forced the Cosmos into 18 turnovers, 13 of which came in the middle two stanzas. “Our intensity on defense, I think we really turned it up,” said MRU coach Ken Webb, whose team has now won four straight. “People (say) all the time, ‘Defense wins championships,’ and that was huge for us. We knew we could score, but we knew we just had to contain and try to hold them under 40 as much as possible, and it was pretty close.” “I just don’t think we were able to execute,” Springfield coach Joe Brown. “Defensively, there was a lot more energy on Mill River’s side, and I think the gap was just too much to overcome ... I feel really bad for the girls – I know they really wanted this, but there’s got to be a winner, and there’s got to be a loser. We just couldn’t make it happen.” Bankert also netted seven points on Mill River’s 10-4 run in the first quarter, but it was Taylor Worcester’s 3-pointer from the corner just before that that tied the game up and gave Mill River the confidence boost it needed. The Minutemen led by three points after one, but the big blow was yet to come. Cheslsea McAllister’s running hook shot at 5:15 of the second tied the game for Cosmos for the last time, as MRU answered with a seemingly harmless layup by Carly Ward. However, to the Minutmen’s delight – and the Cosmos’ terror – that deuce was the first of 15 straight points Mill River would score, and before anyone could blink, the home team had a 33-18 lead at halftime. “We knew (McAllister) was going to score her points,” Webb said of the Cosmos’ all-time leading scorer, who finished this one with a team-high 18 points. “But I thought we pressured and we contained people to the outside, and we just didn’t allow them a lot of easy baskets.” “I don’t think we were very patient on the offensive end,” Brown said. “I don’t think we utilized our strengths (to) get better shots. We let them dictate our shot selection, and we didn’t have that focus on both ends.” It only got worse for Springfield, as the visitors would get just four points through the first seven minutes of the third, all the while committing eight turnovers. A three-point play by Worcester put Mill River on top by 20 points for the first time, 42-22, with 1:50 to go in the period, and her team held a 46-30 edge going into the finale. Bankert scored eight points in the fourth quarter as the Minutemen closed it out with an 18-13 frame. “Everything cycles around (Bankert),” Brown said. “If we can stop her from penetrating and slow her down in transition, I think we have a better opportunity to win the game. We just couldn’t contain her, and that was the tough part.” “I think defensive rebounding allowed us to get into our transition,” Webb said. “We’re the type of team that wants to defend, rebound, and then we want to push the ball up the floor. That was huge for us ... We were able to get easy baskets out of our transition and score, and that enabled us to extend our lead.” Worcester finished with 12 points and Haley Hull had 10 for 17-5 Mill River, which now gears up to take on No. 7 Fair Haven at “The Aud” on Wednesday. The Slaters, after upsetting No. 2 Mount Abraham in their own quarterfinal on Friday, are another familiar foe for Webb’s girls. They, too, split their season series with the Minutemen, neither winning by more than five points. “Fair Haven’s a great team, and to be able to have another opportunity to face Fair Haven at Barre is something special,” Webb said. “I think both teams are going to really get after each other defensively, (and) I think it’s going to be really hard for both teams to score on the offensive side.” Tickets for Wednesday’s semifinal at the Barre Auditorium go on sale Monday at the Mill River athletic department. Nicole Patterson tossed in 11 points for Springfield, which wraps up its season at 12-10.