In a showdown highly anticipated by the Bay State League on Friday, February 1, the Walpole Girls Basketball team faced Wellesley–their second meeting of the season–in the Raider’s home gym; however, this time, the Raiders came out on top. Despite the loss, the Rebels remain the leader in the conference with Wellesley remaining in second. The two Herget power houses are home to some of the top-scoring players in the league. Walpole sophomore Summer King, Wellesley senior Charlotte Buessema, and Wellesley junior Sophia Mavrommatis are the third, fourth, and fifth leading scorers in the league, respectively.
In the teams’ first meeting of the year, Wellesley was without their star center, senior Grace Miller, and the Rebels took advantage, winning 50-44.In their latest meeting, however, Miller was back and led all scorers with 17 points, leading her team to an overtime win, beating Walpole 41-38. Even though the Rebels did not come out on top, they showed why they are one of the top teams in the league. Coming out to a slow start, the Rebels struggled with turnovers in the first quarter, going down 13-5 at the end of one.
The second quarter started much like the first for Walpole until they began to get a spark from both senior captains. Senior Captain Lauren Bodin took a charge on the defensive end, and shortly after senior Captain Bridget Nicholson had two quick steals and converted four free-throws. King ended the half with a block on a Miller shot, but the Raiders still went into the locker room on top 22-14.
Bodin came up big once again in the third quarter, getting the half started with a three-pointer for the Rebels. Nicholson had yet another steal and hit a three-point shot on the team’s next possession to pull within four points of the Raiders. After Wellesley hit another shot but was unable to take advantage of Walpole turnovers, Bodin drained yet another three-pointer, took an offensive foul on the other end of the court, and then made a layup on Walpole’s next possession to give her team their first lead of the game. Even with Walpole’s growing momentum, the third quarter ended with a score of 29-28 in favor of Wellesley.
Nicholson started the fourth quarter strong for the Rebels, putting up a quick layup to put them in the lead once again. King took a charge on the defensive end before the momentum turned in favor of the Raiders, who scored two quick baskets off of Walpole turnovers to tie the game 34-34 midway through the quarter. After strong defensive play by both teams, sophomore Julie Moser got a steal off of a King deflection to give Walpole the ball with one second remaining. The Rebels called a timeout but were unable to score off of a deep three-point attempt by Nicholson, which ended the fourth quarter with a score of 36-36–pushing the game to overtime.
Nicholson started overtime by scoring two free-throws and then blocking a Wellesley shot on the defensive end. Both Walpole and Wellesley were unable to convert until the final minute of overtime, with Wellesley’s Miller Scoring two free-throws to give Wellesley the lead for good before the Raiders scored another two free-throws, beating Walpole 42-38.
Bodin said, “Even though we didn’t win, we played really well in the second half and if we can keep playing like we did against Wellesley then we can hopefully make a run in the postseason.”
Although the Rebels did not come out with a win, making their record 10-4, they were still able to hold onto first place in the Bay State Herget, with Wellesley–the defending Herget Champions–remaining in second place.
