With Andover down 26-33 and just ten minutes left in the game, Sarah Humes ’16 charged down the court and blew by defenders to sink a deep two-point shot. Driven by Humes’s determination, Cara Cavanaugh ’15 and Co-Captains Kasey Hartung ’14 and Katie Kreider ’14, stepped up to help complete the comeback against Deerfield on Saturday 48-40.
“Going into the game we were really motivated to win because we came so close to beating Thayer on Wednesday,” said Cavanaugh.
“We wanted to focus on executing,” said Kate Hoey ’14. “Whether it was our plays on offense, completely boxing out and rebounding, or shutting down Deerfield on defense, we wanted to give 100 percent the entire time.”
The start of the game proved challenging for Andover. The team gave Deerfield numerous turnovers and chances at many offensive rebounds.
At the half, Andover trailed Deerfield by 11 points 18-29 and lacked confidence with the ball.
Motivated by its many fans in the stands, Andover came out in the second half with a new burst of energy.
“We were really pumped up and we started executing our offense and taking the ball to the hoop while drawing fouls,” said Humes.
Andover learned from its mistakes in the first half and changed its strategy accordingly to reduce turnovers and to move effective offensive possessions. As time wore on, the team slowly crept back into the game and closed in on Deerfield.
“Another huge adjustment we had was our passes to the wings. At the beginning of the game, Deerfield was picking them off, but we used Deerfield’s over-aggressiveness against them by ball-faking and penetrating deep into their defense,” said Hoey.
A few Andover players put up major points on the scoreboard. Kreider led the team with 15 points, Cavanaugh scored 11, Hoey put up ten and Humes had nine.
“Kreider had a great game, contributing a lot of blocks and steals on defense and adding a lot of energy on offense,” said Humes.
Scoring a total 30 points to Deerfield’s 11 in the second half, Andover sealed its victory in a hard-fought comeback.
“We brought a lot of heart into the end of the game that we haven’t really shown before and that is what allowed us to come back from behind and end up winning,” said Cavanaugh.
On Wednesday, the team fought valiantly but could not bring down a notoriously strong and undefeated Nobles team.
Nobles kicked off the game with an intimidating three-pointer. Hartung, however, appeared unfazed as she responded with a three-pointer of her own.
“It was a great way to start the game, and it sent the message to Nobles that we could compete with them,” said Victoria Bergeron ’16.
The two teams remained competitive throughout most of the first half. Nobles started to intercept Andover’s break-out passes and began to convert them into uncontested layups. Nobles ultimately pulled ahead in the last five minutes of the first half.
Nobles’ ten-point lead quickly turned into a 25-point lead, and Andover struggled to close the gap for the rest of the game.
The game ended 69-17 Nobles. The defeat was a wakeup call for the Andover team.
“It was a tough game against Nobles, but we’re going to use it for fuel to win this weekend,” said Bergeron.
Humes said, “Moving forward into our next games we want to continue growing stronger in how we play together. We want to learn how to stay calm on offense to reduce our turnovers and score off our plays.”
The team looks to avenge its loss in its upcoming game at home against Worcester this Saturday.
