On Friday, Andover Girls Basketball defeated Holderness, winning by 30 points. Andover also increased its win percentage by 22 percent over the course of the week, beating Holderness 56-26 on Friday and narrowly defeating BB&N 49-44 on Wednesday. These two wins brought its record to 6-9.
Throughout the game against Holderness, Andover adjusted to the other team’s play and took advantage of its opponent’s mistakes. The team also played effective defense, allowing them to secure a hard fought win.
Captain Emma Kelley ’17 wrote in an email to The Phillipian, “After the Holderness win, we were so happy because we didn’t have a lot of success against Holderness in the past. Going into the game we were looking to create momentum for the playoffs and we achieved this goal. What we did really well was shut down their key players through great defensive plays. We also executed well on offense and used Holderness’ misplays to our advantage, and that helped us to secure a really big win.”
Andover faced off against BB&N in its final away game of the season and its last game of before the playoffs.
Molly Katarincic ’18 said, “We have been practicing offensive and defensive plays especially to use against BB&N. We are definitely focused on using our press. We are very excited about this game, as BB&N is always very competitive and it should be fairly even.”
Andover’s hard work and strategy paid off, as they defeated BB&N by five points. As a team, they had a total of 58 rebounds, contributing heavily to Andover’s victory. The team’s rebounding statistic demonstrates the importance of Andover’s defense in the game against BB&N.
Casey Yarborough ’17 said, “We did a great job rebounding, especially in the first half. However, when down the stretch, we struggled to make our free throws.”
In practice, Andover has worked on new offensive drills to apply during a game once the team secures a lead.
Katarincic said, “We’ve been doing this keep-away drill a lot in practice and it really came in handy when we were trying to maintain our lead with about two minutes left against BB&N. Our win definitely was a product of our practice and we have to keep working on improving for the championships.”
“It’s really nice to be coming off two solid wins heading into the playoffs, which start on Friday at Taft. This is the end of our season and we want to do really well,” continued Katarincic.
