Co-Captain Kristen Macdonald ’07 scored 21 points including the game winning three-pointer on Saturday’s 41-39 win over Deerfield. The win was especially welcome after Andover’s narrow defeat against Thayer just three days earlier in double overtime. Unfortunately, a severe loss to Nobles and Greenough with a score of 27-43 followed the close victory. Deerfield was expected to be a formidable opponent having beaten teams that had challenged Andover early in the Season. Deerfield put up a good fight; however, Andover was scoring ability provided the late win. The game started out slow with Deerfield having the upper hand. Deerfield stopped Andover’s offense effectively and managed to break through its defense. With about the five minutes remaining in the first half, Andover turned on the heat scoring 17 points and allowing only one. The half ended with Andover leading by eight. Deerfield responded quick opening the second half with a scoring run of its own. Deerfield scored 14 points and only allowed five. This put it in the lead again although not by much with the score 28 – 27 with about six and a half minutes left in the game. The game came down to the last minute. Both teams were tied at 37 with one minute left in the game. Captain Macdonald scored the deciding three-pointer with 40 seconds on the clock, but Deerfield still managed to score one more basket, however, it wasn’t enough. Captain Macdonald added another foul shot to finish off Deerfield at 41 – 39. This was an exceptionally strong performance for Andover in only its second away game win. “We played well, we played really well” says Kelly Fox ’08. Fox, a regular starter, also managed to rack up 12 points that game. On Wednesday Andover faced another strong team. Unfortunately, this time it didn’t come out on top. Nobles is ranked fourth in the league and last year Andover lost to it by 30 points. This year Nobles’ starters included one 6’1” player and one 6’3” player. Andover played skillfully against such a strong team. For the entire first half, the team kept Nobles in check, preventing Nobles room scoring more than 20 points. Nobles averages “over 60 points a game” says Fox, so keeping them under 20 in the first half was an admirable feat. At the end of the first half, Nobles was ahead by six. Andover played well offensively, taking plenty of shots. “Our shots weren’t falling” explains Fox, which seemed to be a major problem throughout the game. In the second half Nobles started to pull away slowly. The game ended 27 – 43, giving Andover its first loss at home. 16 points is not a big loss compared to Andover’s 30 point loss to them last year. Sarah Beattie, back for the first time, was a major contributor to this effort. She scored eight points and pulled down eight rebounds, “she did really well” says Fox. On Saturday Andover plays Worcester, another solid team. Although Worcester is ranked tenth in the league, it has played some of the best teams in the league and therefore its ranking might be misleading. Andover hopes to avenge last year’s loss with a win on the road at Worcester.
