Shayla Eubanks PG’19 laid the ball into a wide open basket against Brooks this past Monday, going on to score 45 percent of Andover’s points. Andover secured two wins this past Saturday and Monday after 6 consecutive losses this season. Andover defeated Pingree on Saturday 52-38 and Brooks on Monday 56-32. Despite these two wins, Andover fell to BB&N 58-53 on Wednesday.
At home on Head of School Day, Eubanks scored 25 out of a total 56 points to energize her teammates and propel the team to victory, according to Wirt.
Wirt said, “Shayla definitely just came out and killed the game. She was getting to the boards, making smart shots, she was making sure she was open and it was really a great energy to bring because when one player is playing like that it brings everybody up and makes everyone play like that which is super helpful especially since we have had a little bit of a tough season. Having that win really just spurred us on to want to win some more.”
Earlier in the week, Andover faced Pingree away. To combat Pingree’s reliance on three players offensively, Andover adjusted its defensive plan pushing Pingree back on its heels, according to Head Coach Liz Monroe and Brooklyn Wirt ’21.
Monroe said, “We switched up the way our defense looked and we had a specific plan against them, they have three strong players. We went out and we executed our defensive plan, they were scoreless for the first I think four minutes of the game and he actually pulled all five of his starters which is always a great sign and we held their two best players to 12 points.”
Wirt said, “ We have a team that can really play some lockdown defense and definitely just having people going for steels is super effective. So that was a big part of what pushed us ahead at the Pingree game. Hard defense is always an essential as well as rebounding and boxing out which is something that we’ve been working on the whole season.”
The win over Pingree also marked Andover’s first win on the road this season.
“The road has been really tough for us this year, we’ve had a lot of super close losses, including a one point loss up at KUA, so it felt really nice to get that monkey off our shoulders and prove to ourselves that we can win on the road as well,” said Monroe.
Despite the momentum from earlier in the week, Andover lost to BB&N in double overtime on Wednesday. Strong defensive skills and several opportunities to get to the basket brought Andover close to a win; however, Andover still had many unnecessary fouls which contributed to the loss, according to Wirt.
Wirt said, “ At the very last second [in the first overtime] we were down by three points and Hailey came out and hit a beautiful three so deep and forced that second overtime. Once we got out there in that last one we were tired and continued to do the same thing that we were doing before and just couldn’t pull it out a third time.”
Andover Girls Basketball will compete in the Eight School Athletic Council tournament away this weekend.
