Andover Girls Basketball had a hard-fought week of back-to-back losses, with a 54-39 loss to Deerfield and a 44-35 defeat against St. Paul’s. Its season record is now 2-7.
Against Deerfield, Andover fell behind early in the game; at halftime, the team was losing by a margin of nearly 25 points. The team managed to make a significant comeback, closing the scoring gap to 15 points by the end of the game.
In the final minutes, Andover made one last surge to even the score, with threatening offensive and disciplined defense. Despite the team’s last-ditch efforts, Andover was ultimately defeated by Deerfield, adding another loss to its record.
Emily Hardy ’20 is one of two Juniors on Andover Girls Basketball.
Laura Bilal ’17 said, “Our energy was low and that negatively affected us. We were getting frazzled, but these are things that don’t normally get to us as a team.”
Despite the difficult loss, the team was able to pinpoint its weaknesses and identify areas for improvement.
Bilal said, “We realized where our weaknesses were so that we could tackle them for future games. We had a really strong final six minutes where we picked up the energy, but it just wasn’t enough.”
The lack of communication within the team was an integral part of its defeat. Following the loss, the team hopes to have more energy and positive interactions on the court in the games to come.
Janneke Evans ’18 said, “People are sometimes quiet and this can lead to trouble in the defensive zone.”
Following its loss on Saturday, the team had a rigorous practice schedule on Monday and Tuesday before its St. Paul’s match.
Molly Katarincic ’18 said, “We had to go back to the drawing board a bit and switch things up. We planned to play our next games in a zone defense, not the usual man-to-man coverage. We also shook up the new offense.”
The new defensive and offensive formats proved to be very effective, as Andover was able to limit St. Paul’s score to just 15 points in the first half of the game.
Katarincic said, “This was a huge checkpoint for our team, as it is always our goal to limit the other team to the least amount of points as possible.”
By halftime, Andover held the lead, but in the second half the game slipped away and Andover was narrowly defeated.
Many players made significant contributions, especially Post-Graduate Corina Lindsey ’17 who helped the team immensely, sinking multiple 3-pointers throughout the course of the game.
Andover took away from these games areas of improvement for the future. Casey Yarborough ’17 said, “We need to improve on rebounding, which really hurt both our offense and our defense.”
“We need to have more energy throughout the game and drive to the basket more which will help us get a lead early on,” said Evans.
Andover will face Worcester Academy this Saturday.
Editor’s Note: Laura Bilal is a Sports Editor for The Phillipian.
