The Walpole boys varsity basketball team has been facing some struggles lately, suffering back to back losses over the past two weeks. The first was to Brookline in a 60-36 game, the second to Wellesley, a 44-29 game. This is a combined point deficit of 39 points. The Rebels are a shooting team this year, but that’s just the problem–they’re not hitting their shots. Nearly all of the individual Rebels have proven themselves to be excellent shooters over their years of play, but it is just not showing this year. Also plaguing them is their high number of turnovers. It seems whenever they find themselves just about to equalize or even take the lead, a few quick turnovers result in a double digit deficit that can be extremely difficult to overcome, especially at the end of a game.
It was clear from the tip off of the Brookline game that it was going to be a tough one. Even the fan section was rather intimidating, their chants and jeers reminiscent of what’s seen in the NCAA tournament. Then their was the team itself, each player seemingly taller and more athletic than the next – one even managed to throw down a one handed jam that gave them enough momentum to eventually run away with the game.
Four days later, Walpole took on Wellesley, but didn’t find much more success. Their scoring woes were very apparent in this match up; they had only four points in the first quarter and seventh in the fourth. They shot 10% from 3 point range, hitting only 3 of their 30 three point attempts throughout the game. This unusually bad shooting is not typical of the team, considering the three-point shot is the strong point of a majority of the players.
Following this game, it became evident that it is not a shooting team that wins games, but a scoring team. If they do not start hitting their shots and putting points on the board, then it will surely result in a season of failure. However, there is still hope that the team will turn it on and shake off this ugly 1-6 start. In most games so far, they managed to keep themselves alive up until the very end. Just a little more consistency from them is all that is needed to start getting some wins, and possibly even make the state tournament.
