BRANDYWINE HUNDRED — After a first half in which Concord matched them nearly shot for shot, the Archmere girls basketball team put together a dominant third quarter on the way to a 52-34 road win on Jan. 26.
A Bridget Malloy three-pointer to open the second quarter staked the Auks to a 16-8 lead, but the scrappy Raiders fought back. They seemed to track down every loose ball and grabbed a majority of the rebounds, and it paid off. Megann Dombchik matched Malloy’s triple, and Devon Michelli added one of her own on the next trip down the floor to cut the Auks lead to two.
Michelli struck once more from distance a bit later, tying the score at 20 and drawing loud cheers from the Concord students in attendance. But the Auks closed out the half by scoring the final six points, getting short field goals from Malloy, Emily Mayo and Lucy Oliver.
MacKenzie Weinkowitz picked up a steal and transition layup early in the third to cut the Auks’ lead to five, but Archmere scored nine of the next 10 points. The pounded the ball inside repeatedly, earning a few trips to the line and getting layups from Sara Denning, Oliver and Malloy to stretch the lead to 36-23. The final five points of the quarter for Archmere belonged to Lydia Scarpaci, who scored once on a nice assist from Mayo, then nailed a three-pointer as time expired.
The lead grew as large as 23 in the opening minutes of the fourth. The loudest cheer in the final eight minutes came on the Auks’ final field goal, scored by reserve Scarlett Healy, after which the coaches and players exploded off the bench to roar their approval.
Oliver was a problem inside for the Raiders all day, finishing with 17 points and nine rebounds while adding four assists. Malloy had 13 points. Scarpaci had 7 points and the same number of assists. Archmere (9-2) is right back on the court Friday, visiting Wilmington Friends at 4 p.m. to end a four-game road trip.
For the Raiders, Weinkowitz had 12 points. Concord fell to 8-7 and travels to Delaware Military on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.
All photos by Mike Lang.