Giovanna Pickering ’13, a post-graduate who graduated from Thayer last year, showed off to her former team with ten points, eight rebounds, two blocks and six steals in Andover Girls Basketball’s 53-40 win over Thayer. Captain Amanda Simard ’13 put up 13 points and played a key role in Andover’s victory. “It was a great game for us; we played strong team defense and rebounded extremely well,” said Head Coach Lewis Robinson. In addition to Simard and Pickering, Maggie Brown ’13 and Victoria Everett ’14 each scored ten points and provided multiple rebounds under the basket. Nekele McCall ’14 also contributed eight valuable points. Wednesday’s performance was an improvement over the previous Saturday, when Andover lost to Milton 49-34 after 40 minutes of aggressive, powerful defense from both sides. Top scorers from the game against Milton included Cara Cavanaugh ’15 and Brown, who contributed seven and six points, respectively. Andover’s offense started out strong but became stagnant by the end of the half, and the team to went down 14 points at halftime. “We fought hard to the end. We fell into a bit of a lull in the middle where we couldn’t really pick up our game,” said Everett, a key player in the Milton game. She scored five points and had some key hustle plays and rebounds. Milton brought a level of intensity to the court that pushed Andover to up its game and play harder to match Milton’s style of play. About halfway through the game, frustration set in after numerous missed shots, but the team did not give up. “I definitely think this is a learning opportunity. We just need to come back even stronger than before. … We’ll learn from this, and we’ll get better, and we’ll definitely win the next one,” said Kasey Hartung ’14. “I think it was just an intensity that we need to bring to the games, really,” said Katie Kreider ’14. After the win over Thayer, Andover looks to continue its momentum in its next game at Deerfield this Saturday.
