Talent, Not Luck Behind Feehan Girls Win Against Medfield

Bishop Feehan wins the quarterfinal round of the MIAA Division 2 South Sectional State Tournament against Medfield. 

The Shamrocks scored 50 points against opponent Medfield High School's 40.

"I haven’t looked at the numbers at all but I would guess they had 15 points from the line and 24 off of offensive rebounds," Medfield head coach Mark Nickerson said.

Feehan, the bracket's eighth seed (15-6) created chance after chance on the offensive end of the floor by beating Medfield defenders for position in the paint and grabbing loose balls around the basket. Sierra Schrader led the Shamrocks in rebounding and Alexis Sells (16 points) always seemed to be in the right position on the offensive side of the  court, working for the ball and scoring. 

Despite the 10-point loss, Medfield was in the game for three and a half quarters and led 9-8 at the end of a low-scoring, defensive first eight minutes. But Feehan got rolling over the final 24 minutes and led at the end of the remaining three quarters – 19-17 at halftime, 29-27 after three and 50-40 to end the game.

With time running out in the third quarter, Nickerson took a chance with his defense and called for a full-court press with under 10 seconds remaining the frame.

“I went and watched [Bishop Feehan] play on Monday and Duxbury never tried [the full-court press] and I thought [Feehan’s] guards were pretty decent ball handlers so I was reluctant to try it, but we were struggling to score so much, we were going to try and score off our defense,” Nickerson said.”

Feehan turned up its defense in the final two minutes and Medfield could not find an offensive rhythm, being forced to foul Shamrock ball handlers to keep time off the clock. When the final buzzer sounded, it was a 10-point victory for the Feehan and an early state tournament exit for the Warriors.

Bishop Feehan advances to the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletics Association (MIAA) Division 2 South Sectional Semi-finals, where it will play the winner of Friday’s Hopkinton-Foxboro game.

“I expect [Bishop Feehan] to go pretty far,” Nickerson said.