LEE — In order to make some history of its own, Franklin Tech had to get past perhaps the most historic girls’ basketball program in Western Massachusetts.
No. 4 Lee certainly showed its teeth on Thursday night. The Wildcats quelled the Eagles’ upset bid from the get-go, never trailing en route to a decisive 73-41 victory in the WMass Division 4 quarterfinal round.
Lee (13-9) advanced to next week’s semifinal where it will play the winner of Friday’s quarterfinal between No. 1 Monson and No. 9 Putnam at the Curry Hicks Cage at a day and time to be determined. The trip to the Cage is the first for the program since 2017.
Fifth-seeded Franklin Tech, fresh off the very first sectional tournament victory in program history, concluded its season with a 19-5 overall record.
“The girls put in the work all season long, earned their seed, earned their victory the other night and earned an opportunity to be here in this spot,” Franklin Tech coach Joe Gamache said. “We ran into a very talented team. They can shoot it, they pass the ball well and they play really good defense.”
The Wildcats, which defeated No. 13 St. Mary’s in Monday’s opening round, missed some layups in the opening minutes of Thursday’s game. But once the shots started falling, they came in bunches. Lee used a 16-6 run to snatch control, leading 18-8 after one quarter and 36-16 at halftime.
Franklin Tech’s patented press was unable to slow down the quick-passing Wildcats, who got to the bucket and finished after the shaky start.
“I didn’t know much about them, but 18 wins is 18 wins,” Lee coach Rick Puleri said. “I heard they liked to press, play uptempo. That’s what they did. The girls were able to get out in transition and once they started making some shots, put everyone at ease.”
Caroline Maloney’s 19 points were tops for the Wildcats, which had nine different players find their way into the scorebook. Emma Puleri joined her in double figures with 12 points, as did Lena Simone with 10 points.
With Lee’s offense converting for the majority of the first half, the Eagles found themselves in unfamiliar territory playing from behind. On the road in hostile territory against a program that has won 19 of the last 31 sectional championships was not exactly what Gamache said his squad had in mind.
“Part of the game plan was to jump out early and put pressure on them,” the Franklin Tech coach explained. “They were the aggressors early in the game. They outrebounded us, got out in transition, and we were never able to really recover.”
Holding a 20-point lead at the break, the Wildcats put things out of reach with an early barrage in the third quarter. The hosts came out of the locker room and put together a 17-2 run to take a commanding 53-18 advantage with 3:14 left in the period. Puleri scored nine points during the spree and Maloney chipped in six points to help open the floodgates.
“It’s a resilient group,” Rick Puleri said of his team. “We’ve dealt with some injuries to key players but the kids have really stepped up.”
Jordan Hurlbert and Gemanaia Cruz led the way for the Eagles with 12 points apiece, while Isabelle Duga followed with seven points and Jocelyn Crowningshield and Emily Ryan notched four points each.
The Eagles graduate the trio of Hurlbert, Crowninsghield and Duga, which helped the program achieve history earlier this week with Franklin Tech’s first-ever postseason victory.
“There’s no shame in this game,” Gamache said. “It’s nice to have a team be able to walk away with a lot of firsts. There are a lot of positives that we can take out of this season and this run. I’m very proud of this group.”