Raising her arms to block a shot, Janneke Evans ’18 successfully denied her Governor’s opponent from securing an easy bucket. Evans’s stout defensive play throughout the game helped propel Andover Girls Basketball to a 39-34 win on Tuesday. Combined with a 47-32 loss to Milton and a 56-24 loss to Thayer, the team’s record is now 2-5.
Even though there was a great deal of enthusiasm on the sidelines during the game against Milton, the team had trouble capitalizing on scoring opportunities and as a result came up short.
Emily Hardy ’20 wrote in an email to The Phillipian, “Our energy on the bench was outstanding. The ref had to ask tell our coach that we had to stay sitting on the bench because we were a distraction.”
Hardy continued, “Our shooting percentage from the field in the past few games has not been that great, so we want to work on driving to the basket more often, and taking higher percentage shots for the upcoming game. We also need to keep improving as a team. If in each game we play better than we did in the previous game then we know we are moving in the right direction.”
After working on its shooting skills in practice, Andover was able to secure a win over Governor’s on Tuesday. Unlike its showing against Milton Academy, Andover’s play against Governor’s was defined by its ability to get the ball to the hoop and score in critical moments.
Claire Brady ’20 said, “We really drove to the hoop today, because in some other games we resort to shooting three-point shots, even though we don’t tend to have a high shooting percentage from out there.
“But this game, we were able to really get to the hoop and make layups that really helped us. We were definitely able to get good shots in the game today and capitalize,” continued Brady.
Overall, Andover played as a cohesive unit and made essential plays on both offense and defense that helped to secure the win.
Brady said, “It was a really good team effort today. We got a lot of fast layups and really good steals off of our press. [Casey Yarborough ’17], [Captain Emma Kelley ’17], and [Post-Graduate Corina Lindsay ’17] played really well, and Janneke was really essential with guarding big post players on defense.”
Following the big win against Governor’s, Andover lacked energy in its contest against Thayer, falling into an early hole that made it hard to fight back into the game.
In the next few weeks, the team hopes to utilize its practices to improve its mental focus.
Yarborough wrote in an email to The Phillipian, “We did well on our press this week, forced a lot of turnovers and a lot of bad shots. We also got a lot better at running our offense with more speed and confidence. We definitely need to work on our rebounding, especially defensively.”
Andover will play Deerfield on Saturday.
Editor’s Note: Emma Kelley ’17 is a Feature’s Editor for The Phillipian.
