Third quarter dooms Unionville in loss to Red Lion

East Marlborough — After a lackluster start for both teams, a high intensity third quarter proved to be the difference maker in the Unionville’s girls basketball game against Red Lion.

The Lions not only won the third quarter but won the game 40-33 over Unionville in first round of the Unionville Holiday Tournament at Unionville High School Monday.

Unionville will play Liberty in the consolation game tonight at 4:30. Red Lion will play Central Bucks East in the championship.

“The feeling was intensity (in the third quarter),’ said Unionville coach Fred Ellzy. “But we lacked that on defense. I think we did a decent job, but to be able to play at the next level you got to be able to turn it up. Right now that is what we have to work on doing. We can’t sit back and let teams be able to predict what the outcome is going to be.’

On the victor’s side, Red Lion coach Don Dimoff talked about his teams keys to edging the Indians in that third quarter.

“Winning the quarter (third quarter) was big,’ Dimoff said. “I thought we gave up on the back side of the press, we gave up some easy looks. I thought my front side of the press was doing a great job pressuring. I thought if nothing else, we were tiring them out a little bit.’

In the beginning of that crucial third quarter, both teams came out firing within seconds of the opening of the new half. Unionville (5-3) pushed a driving to the basket mentality in the first half but started implementing more jump shots that led to quick points to keep them within striking distance of the five-point Red Lion (7-2) lead.

“I’m more of an ‘ attack the basket and kick for the shots’,’ said Ellzy. “What we have to do is find out the right time to do that. I’m not huge on everyone firing three’s left and right, but we have to learn when it’s the right time to shoot one and when it’s the right time to go to the basket.’

There were zero jump shots from the Unionville side but both Maddie Shanahan and Adrianna Weber authored jumpers that kept Unionville afloat up until the last four minutes of the quarter.

Shanahan finished the game with nine points and was described as the team’s ‘ best shooter’ by Ellzy.

“We were falling down there and really needed to pick things up,’ said Shanahan. “We kind of came back in that quarter. It was big for us. We went on a little run but we weren’t able to pull it out.’

After trading offensive punches, Red Lion went on an 8-0 run and was up 28-20 at the 4:03 mark. They would win the quarter 14-10 and led 30-23 heading into the fourth.

The Indians trailed all of the fourth quarter, and was really put into a hole as Red Lion was able to hold the ball in an offensive purgatory from 3:34 mark until Unionville was able to retake possession with 45 seconds left in the game.

Down 38-29, Unionville was able to secure the ball and get it to Micayla Flores, the team’s leading scorer, who hit two unanswered shots to trim the lead to five.

On her second shot, Flores was at the line, hoping to complete the three-point play and inch her team to closer to a four point deficit, something they had not seen since the second quarter.

Unfortunately her shot did not fall and was turned back over to Red Lion where Courtney Dimoff converted in transition for two points on the other end of the floor which put her team back up by seven with five seconds remaining in the game. Flores finished with 12 points and was a clutch performer on her team, scoring the first half of her points to keep her team afloat in the second quarter and mounting a rally with her last six points in the fourth.

“We knew that it was close and that we had to play ‘ pressure defense’, which was important,’ she said. “We’ve been in a couple of these situations this season and we just couldn’t pull it out on this one but the aggressiveness was there but we should have been more aggressive.’

An uninspiring first half proved to be the down fall for Unionville in game one of their holiday tournament.

“I go back to panic,’ said Ellzy. “It’s weird because we have a bunch of seniors on the floor and then they revert back to some of their old habits. I’m looking for someone who wants the ball in pivotal situations.’