For the second time in three seasons, the Latin Academy girls are Boston City League basketball champs thanks in a big part to their defense.
The Dragons forced 41 turnovers, with at least 11 turnovers in three of the four frames, as Latin Academy rolled to a 62-41 victory over New Mission at Madison Park on Thursday.
“It was a great year,” said coach Greg Berry about winning the city title. “These young ladies worked hard through a lot of adversity. I think we had an amazing, amazing game today.”
Latin Academy (17-3) dedicated its win to coach Bill Devens, who fell ill with a virus early in the season and had to step back to recover after a couple games this year.
It was the freshman duo of Amiah Noel (10 rebounds, six steals) and Kiara Collins who stepped up with 42 combined points as Noel won Most Outstanding Player of the tournament.
“It feels good,” Noel said about winning the BCL title. “I have to thank our team because we went through a lot as a team and we wanted (the win) as a team as well.”
For New Mission (6-13), senior Amy Mariano dropped in 22 points to make the All-Tournament team.
To start the contest, Latin Academy dialed up the defense and went on a 13-0 run while forcing 11 turnovers and holding New Mission 0-for-6 from the field. The Titans kept it even the rest of the way to make it a 20-7 deficit after one with Noel netting 13 points in the frame.
“I think it eased the pressure once we started to get comfortable with scoring quick buckets,” said Berry about getting off to the 13-0 start. “We really wanted to start going back and forth on the court. We tried to use the Madison Park gym because it is so big we wanted to do a lot of conditioning. So, they wanted to run.”
Noel continued dominating with five more points in the second quarter, including a triple to push the lead out to 30-14. New Mission senior Amy Mariano scored eight of her 12 first half points in the second as the Titans trailed 24-16 at the half.
