Co-Captain Kennedy Herndon ’23 drives towards the hoop.
After taking Choate all the way to double-overtime this past Saturday, Girls Basketball fell short, ending 66-62. Andover then faced Brunswick on Wednesday, securing a 61-39 victory, respectively. Now its record stands at 5-4.
After a close game against Choate, the team hoped to defeat Brunswick. Akari Imai ’25 commented on how the team implemented skills, such as defending screens and moving intentionally on defense, that they had done in practice in the game.
Imai said, “We’ve worked a lot in practice on our defense and communication, so that really played a big part because we started out strong. We came with a lot of energy. We did everything we learned in practice and we applied it to our game, and we started off with a bang and especially because it was a home game [back from break], and we had all our fans. It was great and I think we improved a lot as a team and I think we were able to do things better than previous games.”
Attacking the basket and communicating on defense helped Andover comeback against Choate, according to Talia Ivory ’25. Ivory valued everyone’s effort and competitive nature.
“A definite highlight was coming back from a rather rough first half and getting to double overtime. Even if we didn’t win, everybody worked really hard and driving to the basket and talking on defense really helped a lot,” said Ivory.
Sharing a similar sentiment to Ivory, Emerson Buckley ’25 complimented the team for making up for its lack of intensity in the first quarter of its game against Choate. After a thrilling second quarter, the team was able to take Choate all the way through double overtime. In comparison to Wednesday’s game, Andover started with the momentum they lacked against Choate.
Buckley said, “I think we had a tough first quarter. Definitely going into the second half and going into the overtimes, we were definitely feeling a lot of adrenaline, very pumped up about the game. We had a really good comeback.”
Imai commented on the lack of intensity in the beginning of the Choate game compared to Brunswick. At Choate, Andover started with low energy, giving their opponent the early lead according to Imani.
“Mental toughness wise, in our Choate game we started out slow so we were down by a bit, but towards the end we played two overtimes so we got our energy back, but I feel like in this game [Brunswick] we were able to start off strong,” said Imai.
In an email to The Phillipian, Head Coach Liz Monroe shared her expectations for the team. She hopes that the team can continue collaborating and showing their commitment and strength in games.
“[I look for] consistency and focus. We are a talented team and are competitive with any other team out there, but we need to make sure that our heads are 100 percent in the game and with each other,” wrote Coach Monroe.
Andover will travel to Governor’s Academy this Friday and host Milton on Saturday.
