Without drawing a foul, Co-Captain Sarah Humes ’16 cleanly stripped the ball from a BB&N player and dashed down the court to sink a layup for Andover in its 46-25 win on Wednesday. Andover fell to Holderness the previous Friday 62-43, moving the team’s record to 6-9.
Against BB&N, Andover had offensive contributions from most of its roster. BB&N played a zone defense, which Andover was able to break down with quick passing and offensive rebounding.
Head Coach Lani Silversides said, “We emphasized moving the ball, getting ball reversals and skip passes [against their zone]. And once we started getting ball reversals, our offense worked a lot better creating some higher percentage shots. Another big part of our offense was offensive rebounding. If we missed the shot, we got the offensive rebound and were able to get some put backs that way.”
Andover also had a great defensive game, holding BB&N to 25 points, the lowest score it has held a team to this season.
“In general, when we talk on defense we tend to do pretty good, so today when were talking on defense and we and help we were really good,” continued Silversides.
Co-Captain Emma Kelley ’17 led the team in scoring with 21 points. The whole team, however, ultimately contributed to the team’s success.
Victoria Bergeron ’16 said, “We have three girls out with injury for the rest of the season so that left ten of us, and I think it really took all ten of us to win, it was a team win. We did a really good job of moving the ball and getting it into our posts and also kicking out to our guards so everyone was getting looks.”
Against Holderness, Kelley recorded a double-double, scoring 25 points and collecting ten rebounds to mark her third double-double of the season.
Humes said, “Emma had a huge offensive game against Holderness, scoring [the] majority of our points.”
Despite Kelley’s scoring success, Andover was not able to make good use of its size advantage and create offensive opportunities
“In the first half, we struggled to get [the ball] into our posts,” said Kelley. “We had a size advantage and we didn’t capitalize. We also had a lot of open looks in the second half that just didn’t fall.”
The team went into the game knowing that Holderness had some talented players. Andover was successful at shutting down Holderness’s key player early, giving Andover a 27-22 lead at the end of the first half. As the game went on, however, Holderness’s offense proved its worth with quick ball movements that Andover couldn’t stop.
Andover will play Northfield Mount Hermon this Friday.
Editor’s Note: Emma Kelley is a Features Editor for The Phillipian.
