Girls Basketball

Girls Basketball Redeems Itself In Final Game of Tournament

In its eighth game of the season, Andover Girls Basketball suffered a 48-32 loss against Brewster Academy, further lowering its season record to 1-7.

Junior Brooklyn Wirt ’21 showed great ability in the game despite the deficit, according to Co-Captain Molly Katarincic ’18.

Katarincic wrote in an email to The Phillipian, “Wirt really stepped up and brought hustle to the court. Even though we lost, she inspired the rest of the team to match her intensity.”

Over Winter Break, Andover competed in the Groton tournament. Despite losing against both Proctor Academy and Groton with respective scores of 48-23 and 48-44, Andover came back to defeat Phillips Exeter Academy 57-31 in its final game.

Katarincic believes that the team struggled at first due to the physicality of its first two opponents.

Katarincic said, “Looking forward to the rest of the season, I think we can definitely improve on the quickness and physicality of our game. I think we struggle against teams like Proctor and Groton who had several players who were very large but also very fast and we struggled to defend that. If we can match that style of play we will have great success.”

Even though Andover got off to a slow start, it gained energy and confidence as it continued to warm up and play more games, according to Hannah McGrath ’20.

“The team changed because we started playing with more confidence. We were taking the ball strongly into the paint as well as looking for our teammates and not playing selfishly,” said McGrath.

According to Katarincic, the team was able to maintain strength despite its losses, resulting in its success against Exeter.

Katarincic said, “I think what I’m most proud of from the holiday tournament is that we definitely had some lower points but we didn’t let that affect our morale and we really were resilient and came back to give it our all until the very end which ended us affording a 30-point lead over Exeter.”

Andover will face Milton Academy on Saturday.