With Andover Girls Basketball trailing 29-27 against Brooks, Molly Katarincic ’18 received a quick pass from Co-Captain Sarah Humes ’16 and swished a 3-pointer with five seconds left on the clock. The crucial shot propelled Andover to a 30-29 victory, boosting the team’s overall record to 4-7 after a 73-41 loss to Worcester earlier in the week.
The scoring load against Brooks was carried largely by Humes with 11 points, Antonia Tammaro ’17 with eight points and Katarincic with seven points.
Katarincic said of her game-winning shot, “It was a huge hustle play by Sarah to recover the ball, and before I got the ball, I knew that I would have to shoot, but I wasn’t that nervous because I have been taking [3-pointers] a lot in practice lately.”
“I saw Molly open at the top of the key, and so I did my best to get her the ball, and she came up big and hit the shot when we needed it,” said Humes.
The victory against Brooks came off the heels of a tough loss to Worcester’s talented team, to whom Andover lost by a similar margin of 31 points in December.
Heading into the game on Saturday, Andover focused on its rebounding and ability to draw fouls. In the game, the team executed these goals, which enabled it to stay competitive.
Humes said, “Our two goals for the game were to out-rebound Worcester and to get the foul line more than them, and we did both of those things. We were aggressive and worked hard the entire game.”
Despite the team’s best efforts, the Worcester players outscored Andover in the end, and the girls eventually fell by a margin of 73-41. Humes notched the team’s highest individual point total, scoring 10 points in the game.
Due to a neck injury to Co-Captain Emma Kelley ’17, Andover had to play its past two games without its leading scorer, who had been averaging 20.3 points per game.
“Obviously it has been tough without Emma the past couple of games, but to compensate for that, we have been trying to get to the line a lot, so I think we have been succeeding in that way,” said Humes.
Andover looks to beat its arch-rival Phillips Exeter Academy this Saturday.
