The Walpole girls basketball team fell to the mercy of the Wellesley Raiders Tuesday, February 7 in a high-intensity battle that featured two of the premier teams in the Bay State League.
The game started off with a very energetic tempo, with many scoring opportunities for both teams. When Wellesley began to hit their shots early, junior Lauren Bodin hit two three pointers to keep the Rebels in the game. The momentum continued, as Walpole perfectly executed an out of bounds play, which set up senior Captain Shannon Cullen to make a shot at the buzzer sounding the end of the first quarter — the score, Walpole 16, Wellesley 14.
To begin the second quarter, senior Captain Steph DeSantis made a very convincing ball fake to offset her defender and finished with a jump shot. Both teams went back and forth, and the Rebels went into halftime ahead two, 29-27.
But in the third quarter, the Raiders finally took the lead. Junior Bridget Nicholson started off the quarter with a three-pointer, but Wellesley’s post game soon took control. For the most part, the Rebels played solid defense. Cullen had several nice blocks, denying shots from Wellesley’s Grace Miller, and Nicholson was able to create multiple jump balls by tying up the Raiders’ point guard.
Despite a strong defensive effort from Cullen and Nicholson, the Rebels still had difficulty controlling Wellesley’s 6’3” center Miller. With freshman Summer King and Cullen in foul trouble early in the game, the Raiders were able to exploit the undersized Walpole players by getting the ball into Miller. Despite nice dribble drives from Frattasio and Nicholson, the Raiders were still able to come out on top. The final score of the game was in Wellesley’s favor, 48-61.
“Last time we faced them, we all showed up to play and controlled the pace of them game. When we played them Tuesday we just couldn’t put all of the pieces together and execute in the fourth quarter,” said Nicholson. The loss marked the last time Walpole would play Wellesley, barring a tournament matchup.
“We started off really strong and we were even with Wellesley for the whole first half. but, we let our lead slip and with a good team like Wellesley, they were able to come back and win it,” said Cullen.
The game put the Rebels back into third place in the Herget, behind crosstown rivals Natick and Wellesley.
