MONTAGUE — When Micalyn Mailloux hit consecutive shots from range early in the second quarter everything started to fall into place for the Mahar girls basketball team, which went on to beat Turners Falls, 76-36, Monday night.
“After I made the 3-pointers coach told us to keep shooting,” Mailloux said.
The swishing of the net became contagious for the Senators (5-4) and the shots started to fall from all over the court in a big second-quarter run.
Delaney Parker hit a 3-pointer as did Abby Bonk, with Tori Tenney adding a deep two-point shot for Mahar.
But it was the continued relentlessness of Mailloux scoring in the open floor off turnovers that enabled the Senators to outscore the Thunder 32-7 in the second quarter.
“We scored a couple off turnovers from the press,” Mahar coach Larry Fisher said. “Which was nice. It was a nice win. But a win that should have been different in the beginning.”
Mailloux had a career-high 25 points with 16 points coming in the second quarter alone.
“We were passing really well,” Mailloux said. “Jazmyn (Vautour) was passing really well. She either passed it to me or took it herself.”
The Senators played a lackluster first quarter in which Fisher pulled his starters fairly quickly into the game.
“They started out flat,” Fisher said. “They weren’t focused and didn’t have any passion. They had to wake up.”
Turners Falls (0-9) has struggled this season. Dabney Rollins led the Thunder with 18 points.
“Maybe they were looking at Turners’ record,” Fisher said.
Vautour had five points with nine rebounds.
Jordan Fournier helped out on the glass as well for Mahar with nine rebounds. Scoring in double-figures was Bonk and Parker with 10 points each.
Courtney Page added eight points off the bench.
The lopsided nature of the game let Fisher clear the bench and get some players in to get varsity experience. Sienna Moore and Natalie Belloli scored their first varsity baskets for Mahar.
It was Belloli’s (four points) first varsity playing time.
Southwick 46, Athol 43 — Geca Baptista scored a season-high 15 points in a road loss for the Red Raiders (2-7).
Haley Bigwood added 10 points for Athol, with Sophie Putnam chipping in with six.
Mahar 67, Belchertown 55 — The Senators took care of business behind Jordan Desrosiers’ 17 points in a road win against the Orioles in the Hampshire South league.
Mahar (7-3, 3-2) pulled away in the fourth quarter.
Charlie Barnes (13), Daesean Watson (10) and Ely Gonzalez (10) each reached double-digits.
Jakob Carron grabbed nine rebounds.
