First place in Freedom on the line in Wilmington Friday

Published in the January 23, 2020 edition.

By DAN BYRNE

WAKEFIELD — Having lost their previous game on Sunday against Bishop Fenwick, the Wakefield Memorial High School girls’ varsity basketball team looked to bounce back against Watertown on Tuesday in a rematch of the season’s first game, which saw Watertown take the win by just two points.

At the Charbonneau Field House on Tuesday night, the Warriors locked down the Red Raiders to the tune of a 38-16 win.

Wakefield allowed eight first quarter points, then just eight points in the second through the fourth quarters.

In the first matchup, which saw Watertown win 43-42, Raider forward Taylor Lambo dominated with 21 points.

Aggressive offense from the Warriors, and lockdown defense saw Lambo land in foul trouble early, and once she came back into the game, she was never able to find any room to shoot. Wakefield held Lambo to just two points on the night.

“We’ve been undersized and undermanned all season, and now we’re slowly getting back to having the squad I thought we’d have back in December,” Warriors’ head coach Jason Pavey said following his teams’ latest win.

“We go into the game plan and see what their strength is and how do we take it away?”

On shutting down Lambo Pavey said, “We lost to them first game, Lambo was great for them, she had 21 points. She was in some foul trouble tonight, but I think we really didn’t give her any looks. We doubled her pretty much every time they gave the ball to her.”

The Warriors’ offense got off to a slow start, but once Maeve Gaffney opened the scoring up with her first two, she never slowed down.

Gaffney led the way for the Warriors, with the sophomore forward scoring a game-high 15 points.

“Maeve had been under the weather the last couple of days so I wasn’t sure what I’d get from her coming in,” Coach Pavey admitted, “But as soon as those first couple of shots went in I knew she was feeling pretty good.”

Wakefield had the long distance shot working in the first quarter, as Hannah Hill came in off the bench and knocked down a 3-pointer from the corner.

“Hannah Hill is coming around, she’s healthy, she came in and hit a huge 3 for us,” said coach Pavey of the sophomore forward.

Later on in the quarter, senior captain Kyleigh Flannigan banked in a three off the window, and Gaffney followed with a trip to the bank down town as well.

“It always helps when you have people knocking down 3’s and other shots,” the coach added.

In total, Wakefield connected with three first quarter 3-pointers as the Warriors led 14-8 after one.

Both teams struggled to find their shots in the second quarter, as Wakefield outscored Watertown just 4-3 in the frame. Gaffney added two points to her total and captain Winnie Mylan had her only two points of the night, but Wakefield’s impenetrable defense afforded them an 18-11 halftime lead.

Wakefield came out with a patient approach offensively in the third quarter, but that isn’t to say they weren’t aggressive. They were more measured and worked the ball around to get better looks. As a consequence, the shot clock became a factor on a couple of possessions, one of which saw freshman guard Emma Shinney hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer.

After the 3 by Shinney, Gaffney took control, scoring in the low post while getting fouled and making the free throw for an old-fashioned three-point play.

The next time down on the offensive side of the floor, the Warriors worked the ball around to find Gaffney wide open for a 3 in the corner. She would add another bucket to bring her total to 15 through three quarters.

In the fourth, the offenses started out slow again for both sides, but the return of Ashlee Purcell from the injured list saw an injection of speed into the Warriors’ lineup.

“We’ve been kind of rolling with six kids for about the past week, so it’s been hard, it puts a lot on them,” Pavey recalled. “Tonight was Ashlee Purcell’s first game back and I was super excited for her. There was just a different energy when she was out there. She only had two points but I think the lead went from six to 15 in her time out there on the court.”

Purcell made her presence felt on the defensive side of the ball, picking off a pass and breaking away down the floor for a transition layup, like we saw her do so many times last season.

Purcell’s bucket opened the flood gates, as Shinney converted a three-point play and Sophie Brown and Flannigan added baskets for the Warriors, who outscored the Raiders 9-2 in the fourth, sealing the win 38-16.

On his team’s stalwart defense, coach Pavey had this to say: “It’s been kind of the story of our season – our defensive intensity, our defensive execution, for the last five or six games I couldn’t ask for more.”

On his team’s second half performance, coach Pavey mentioned, “We talked at halftime about being a little more aggressive, and when you have the ball, look to be an option to score. I think sometimes we’re a little bit too unselfish, we don’t really look to attack, but we did a good job in the second half tonight of knowing when to attack and knowing when to kick it out, play inside-out basketball.”

Looking ahead the coach said, “We were lucky we had a nice little stretch of home games. We went 3-1 in that stretch, but now we have to go out on the road Friday to Wilmington, and they’re really, really good; so we’ll enjoy it tonight, but it’s back to work in the next couple of days.”

The Warriors (6-3 league record) and Wildcats (6-3) tip-off on Friday at 7 p.m.