Neither Bishop Guertin's Gianna Pezzetti (4) and Mercy's Sadie Laurie (32) can grab the ball before it goes out of bounds during Saturday's inter-state game at the Colligadome. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

ASHUA – Tim Kohs has been through it before at Middletown, Conn.’s Mercy High School.

The Tigers coach remembers a few years ago having four freshemen he had to start on varsity to become the heart of his squad. It wasn’t easy, but last year they were seniors and took Mercy to the state title game.

Thus he knows exactly what first-year Bishop Guertin coach Olivia Orlando is going through as the Cards are almost starting from scratch, their dynasty days behind them.

“She’s going through the same thing,” Kohs said after his Mercy squad beat the Cards 53-39 in their annual visit to the Colligadome. “I’ll tell you, she’s got some nice pieces, the kids play hard.”

“It’s a process,” Orlando said. “I say it all the time to them. A lot of people want to talk about the end result, winning championships and hanging banners, but it takes a process to get there.

“You can’t just throw a group together and expect it. You have to build that. So we’re building it, we’re learning it, we’re keeping our heads up and just taking it one day at a time.”

The loss snapped a modest three-game Cards winning streak and dropped them to 5-6, while Mercy, which led most of the way, improved to 12-3. The Tigers jumped out to a 12-2 lead, thanks in part to the shooting of Winnie Ciccarello, who hit five 3-pointers, three of them in the first period, and finished with 19 points.

Still, Guertin stayed in it, down 30-23 at the half but managed just five points in the third quarter, after which they trailed 40-28. While BG was playing tight defense, the Cards’ offense was struggling.

“We struggled a little bit today,” Orlando said. “We struggled to shoot it. That’s one of things we’re trying to focus on right now. If our shots aren’t falling, how do we get ourselves out of it. We’ve got to get downhill, get second or third chances, just doing other things when the ball’s not going in as much as we’d like.”

But Guertin managed just one player in double figures, freshman point guard Jas Rosario, who had nine of her 11 points in the second quarter and was scoreless in the second half. Holly Dufoe, another freshman, managed seven as did Ayla Regan. Just not enough.

Still, the Cards managed to creep back, and Maddi Long’s 3-pointer got them to within six, 40-34, with 5:32 to play. But inside buckets by Mercy’s Maddie Benigni (game high 21 points) and Mercedes Artaiz, plus a Benigni trey pushed the advantage back to 47-36 with 3:28 to play.

“We were losing air in the tires and were like, ‘What’s going on here?'” Kohs said. “Then we went in the post two times in a row and got two baskets.”

Still, the Cards hung in there longer than one may have expected the way things were going, thanks mainly to a tough defensive effort.

“We’re doing a lot of great things,” Orlando said. “We pride ourselves on our defensive effort, that’s really a big part of our identity and who we are. Now it’s just stringing both parts together, on both ends, the offensive end and defensive end.”

Now they visit another tough out of state team, Bishop Feehan of Attleboro, Mass. on Wednesday. But they got a big out of state win vs. Rhode Island’s LaSalle last Sunday, and Orlando knows these games are a benefit.

“We don’t want to play teams where we’re winning by large amounts,” she said. “We want to play games which we’re going to get better from and benefit from. We love the competition.”

And the BG coach says her squad learns from each and every one.

“We’re taking huge steps, a lot of growth, a lot of learning,” Orlando said. “They’re learning how to play at this level, how to play together, learning how to win. This is a really young squad, a talented squad nonetheless, a lot of learning.”

Learning that should pay dividends down the road. Just ask Tim Kohs.

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