Andover basketball battled back and forth the entire first half in Wednesday’s game against tough competitor Noble and Greenough. Fortunately, the team finally captured a lead in the second half and came out on top. Earlier in the week, Andover cruised to an easy win against Deerfield Academy on Saturday. Last Saturday, Andover squared off against Deerfield. Deerfield proved to be less of a threat, therefore allowing Andover to fine-tune its skills in a live game. “We got to practice different plays against Deerfield that will help us throughout the remainder of the season,” said Megan Robertson ’11. Giving its entire roster time on the court, Andover improved its depth at every position in its game against Deerfield. “The best thing about that game is we got to play everyone,” said Coach Lani Silversides. She continued, “All twelve players contributed and got some good minutes, which was nice for the younger players especially to get used to game situations.” Andover jumped ahead early and kept a solid lead throughout the entire game against Deerfield. When the final buzzer rang, Andover took a solid 46-24 victory. Andover took the court on Wednesday against Nobles, a perennial basketball powerhouse. Keeping the score roughly within ten points during the first half, the two teams went head-to-head trying to gain a lead. Andover adapted to the Nobles strategy in the second half and learned to remain patient in offense, creating easy scoring opportunities. In the end, Andover’s defense and communication, which the team had focused extra hard on during practice, really stole the win. Robertson said, “We were able to play really good defense and communicate, which helped prevent a lot of wide-open shots. The guards handled the ball really well versus full-court pressure and Alex [Kiss-Rusk, ’12] was really strong in the paint.” Coach Silversides said, “We played great team man-to-man defense today.” Andover secured the lead for the entire second half, and left the game with a final score of 54-47. Looking ahead to the coming games, Andover anticipates this Saturday’s matchup against Worcester. Andover took Worcester on in its first game of the season, rallying head-to-head to snag a close 43-38 win in the final minutes. Andover looks to repeat its early season success Saturday.
