Sports

Girls Bball Easily Beats Worcester

For the Lady Hoopsters, this win is just another tally in the W column. The Girls’ Basketball team extended their winning streak last Saturday in a well-fought game against Worcester. The ladies were on fire, bringing a 47-33 victory back to Academy Hill. Although the Lady Blue started out nervously, they bettered their offense as the game wore on and successfully executed an unusual defense that centered around Worcester’s leading player. Coach Karen Kennedy started the game by positioning her usual starting line out on the court. Starters Cortney Tetrault ’03, Captain Danielle Vardaro ’03, Meg Coffin ’03, Mimi Hanley ’04, and Kat Conlon ’04 spent the first few minutes struggling before they could establish a secure lead over Worcester. With the opponents guarding the outside shot, the Big Blue offense was able to get into the arc and make some serious baskets. Later in the half, Sarah Chang ’05 and Jess Daigneault ’04 got their chance to score on the trailing Worcester team. The Lady Blue left the half with a leading score of 28-12. In one of her usual halftime pump-up talks, Coach Kennedy congratulated the girls on their aggressive and focused play but expressed the need to watch for a potential but insidious Worcester comeback. Starter Tetrault summed up the talk, “During halftime, Coach Kennedy told us that we were playing well but needed to keep up our defense and recreate what we were doing in the first half. A team as good as Worcester could make a comeback, so we needed to maintain our level of intensity.” In the second half, the players had trouble keeping their energy up. Despite the fact that they had difficulty re-establishing the rhythm that they had had before the end of the first half, the Lady Blue managed to keep up their sizeable lead. The team’s talent let them get away with the mistakes that they were making. Even though both the players and Coach Kennedy acknowledge a slow down, their lead remained just as strong. Captain Vardaro pointed out their talents and difficulties, “Our game is really coming together, but we were slacking a little on turnovers, and that’s something we need to pay attention to especially as we play the tougher teams. Overall, we played a really solid first half, and it looked good.” This game was another game of improvements for the PA squad. The team continues to work toward their team goals: more rebounds, two well-played halves, and a more aggressive defense. The Lady Blue accelerated into their best play almost immediately, put in more rebounds, and only let Worchester score a low 33 points. The big players in this game were Hanley and Conlon. They both brought in 12 points for the team and hit over half of their shots. Hanley and Coffin also pulled down 8 boards. Tetrault helped out with 6 assists, and Hanley made 4 steals. With stats this remarkable, it is obvious that the game pace was high, and the players were set on winning. Tetrault was more than pleased with the team’s performance, “Initially, we had been told that they were going to be one of our toughest players — they have the same style of play as Tabor,” she recalled,“ but we came to the court on fire with an aggressive defense. I remember the score was something like 22-4 when I first looked up. The whole time I felt like we were playing an intense game. Our shots were falling and our defense was intense right from the start.”