BRIDGEWATER — When you are the lone senior, responsibility often falls squarely on your shoulders.
Warranted or not, it was a role Jasmine Day-Cox accepted, and she has excelled in the spot.
The guard paced her team with 16 points, as top-ranked Cathedral returned to the Div. 4 girls basketball championship with an impressive 61-38 win over No. 4 Millis at Bridgewater-Raynham Regional High School.
“I feel like I have to step up and do more for my team,” said Day-Cox. “Coming out, I scored the first basket to get our energy up.”
After Day-Cox opened play with a successful sequence, her teammates followed in quick succession. Most notably, the young stars came to play. The Panthers also played a suffocating style of defense, taking Millis out of its game.
Sophomore guard Tamia Darling carried the offense in the first half with 10 points, eight of which came in the second frame as Cathedral (18-5) took a 36-15 lead at the break.
“They’ve been locked in,” said Cathedral coach Clinton Lassiter. “In practices, they’re fully engaged. In the classrooms, there have been no issues. They’re all honor roll students. For that, I’ve been impressed. Balancing the rigor of basketball, where we do a lot of running, the rigor of academics at Cathedral? Then just maintaining the atmosphere of it all, (it’s admirable), and in March, the excitement gets real.”
While Millis (18-8) attempted to ramp up its offensive tempo in the second half, the Panthers were able to respond. Day-Cox hit a bucket with 6:30 to go in the third, as Cathedral opened up a 25-point advantage at 40-15. Sophomore guard Keyona Raines drained seven points in the quarter herself, as Cathedral constructed a 57-27 lead entering the final stanza.
“That’s been our thing,” said Lassiter. “We talk about being 13 deep. We try to win with 13 individuals. Little by little by little, it’s going to be a track meet. It’s always going to be a track meet.”
Led by a balanced scoring attack, Cathedral managed to cruise to its second straight Div. 4 final. Raines finished with 11 points in the effort, as did junior guard Hijah Alien-Paisley.
The Panthers will now attempt to capture their second straight state title, when they face third-seeded South Hadley at the Tsongas Center in Lowell this weekend.
“It just shows that we put on a show,” Day-Cox said. “We look to pass, shoot. My teammates see me all the time. My teammates (found) me open, and that’s what helped me contribute to the scoring.”
