Missy Wingard ’09 led Andover in scoring against Tabor on Wednesday with 13 points and an equal number of rebounds as the team closed out a disappointing week with two losses. Andover’s GV Basketball team played Choate for the second time this season last Saturday. Having already played Choate the girls knew what to expect, but still did not end up on top. Saturday, Andover started off strong keeping the scores even for the first quarter of the game. In the second, however, Choate went on a scoring run that left the score 28 – 16 at the half. They were a strong team: “One girl on Choate had 18 points in the first half” said Co-Captain Kristen Macdonald ’07. Andover came out in the second half determined to recover. They made a valiant effort to even up the score, but in the end it wasn’t enough. Choate narrowly beat the girls by 5 points; the final score was 39 – 44. The Big Blue scored more points than Choate did in the second half, but were unable to make up the deficit from the first half. If Andover had consistently played with the intensity they held at the end of the game, scoring four points in the last minute, the outcome of the game may well have been different. Wednesday’s game was less close. Andover knew what to expect, with Tabor ranked first in the league and Andover missing two players. Hailee Minor ’08 and Sarah Beattie ’07 were out with injuries. “We knew they were going to be a really strong and aggressive team,” said Macdonald. Andover started strong; ending the first half 17 – 27. “We played really, really, well in the first half, we were only down by 10” says Missy. “We had trouble holding on to it for the second half” said Wingard. In the second half, Tabor stepped it up tremendously, scoring 28 points and only allowing Andover to score five. Stuart Anderson ’07, and Wingard were strong performers against Tabor. Anderson scored 6 points, hustled and rebounded. Wingard “did really well on the offensive rebound,” said Kristen Macdonald. Although Andover’s record of 2 – 4 does not show, the team is much stronger than they were last season. “So far we’re so far ahead of what we were last year,” said Macdonald. Wingard added, “People should expect us to really come out by the end of the season.” Hopefully this attitude is reflected in this Saturday’s home game against Milton. Andover won their only previous home game, against Brewster. As the season progresses, Andover coaches hope the girls of the Varsity Basketball team will come together further to play with increased fluidity and teamwork. Team chemistry will prove to be a vital and important factor as Andover faces off against perennially strong teams. The team also hopes to improve its conditioning and performance through hard work and training inorder to maintain momentum throughout the second half and final moments of each game–critical in any competition.
