Courtney Erickson ’15 drove to the hoop and banked the ball off the backboard, scoring the game’s first basket and drawing a foul in Andover Girls Basketball’s game against Brooks on Wednesday. Erickson sunk her foul shot to complete the three-point-play and propel Andover to an early 3-0 lead.
Andover dominated Brooks from the beginning of the game to take home a resounding 61-35 win, and Erickson went on to net a season-high 25 points in the game. She is averaging 13 points per game this season.
The team lacked energy and struggled with its 2-2-1 full court press in the first half of the game, and Andover entered halftime with just a six point lead.
“In the first half, we came out really slow, and we weren’t really playing to the best of our ability,” said power forward Captain Cara Cavanaugh ’15, “When we didn’t have a lot of energy, [Brooks was] able to get past us, and our press wasn’t really accomplishing anything.”
Janneke Evans ’18 added, “Our defense was our challenge in the first half. We were letting them get by us pretty easily.”
Andover hit the court in the second half with newfound energy that led to crucial defensive improvement.
Assistant Coach Christopher Jones said, “Really, the whole game was an okay first half and a much better second half… Our defense made the difference in the second half. When we played better defense, we got better rebounds, got more turnovers and scored more points.”
Evans said, “The second half was better because we had more of a drive and wanted to win and really pushed ourselves hard. Also, our defense was much better. We really shut them down, they only scored 14 points versus 24 in the first half.”
On Saturday against Worcester Academy, Andover upset the hosts 45-40. Despite the victory, Andover struggled to establish its momentum and maintain possession of the ball in the first half.
Shooting guard Emma Kelley ’17 said, “The first half [we] lacked energy and determination to get both offensive and defensive rebounds.”
Cavanaugh added, “In the first half, we got into foul trouble, and they were able to get a lot of points off of foul shots. We also had issues with taking care of the ball in our offense.”
The team trailed by nine points at the end of the first half, but Andover maintained a positive outlook, improved its 2-3-zone defense and pulled out a win.
Head Coach Lani Silversides said, “We took the second half one possession at a time with the mentality that it was 0-0 at halftime, and we needed to focus on getting a stop on defense and then scoring.”
Kelley said, “We were shifting really well and effectively in our zone defense and we got a lot of steals off of it.”
The team gave up only 13 points in the second half, and the stronger defense led to better offensive opportunities.
Cavanaugh added, “In the second half, we played really well on defense, which gave us more momentum in our offense. We were able to make good plays and finish more of our shots.”
The final minutes of the game were neck-and-neck, and ultimately, they came down to decisive free throws. Cavanaugh hit three crucial foul shots in the final minutes to put Andover ahead.
“Cara Cavanaugh got the bucket that put us up by two. Then, with less than a minute left, she got fouled and went to the line for a 1-1. She made both which really sealed the game, putting us up by four,” said Silversides in an email to The Phillipian.
With two wins in a row under its belt from this week, Andover now stands at 6-6-0. The team will take on Exeter at home this Saturday.
