After winning the Bay State Herget Crown and finishing the regular season with a 13-7 record, the Walpole High School girls basketball team went into its first round MIAA division 2 South tournament game against Bishop Feehan with high expectations.  But, in the end, the number ten Rebels could not topple the seventh-seeded Shamrocks, who came out on top 71-56.

Traveling to Bishop Feehan on February 28th, the Rebels came out strong in the first quarter, only trailing Bishop Feehan by 2 with a score of 13-11 at the end of the first eight minutes.  The Shamrocks began to pull away, however, in the second quarter as Walpole struggled to get good looks inside and could not get their outside shots to fall.  Ending the half trailing 29-22, the game was still in reach for the Rebels.

Walpole sophomore Summer King came out strong out of the gates at the start of the second half, scoring the first six points of the half after Walpole forced the Shamrocks to turn the ball over on their first three posessions of the half.  King pulled the Rebels within two points of Bishop Feehan, which Walpole did on three seperate occasions in the third quarter.  Despite the momentum going in Walpole’s favor for the majority of the third quarter, they were still down by six, 44-38, at the end of the third quarter.

Senior captain Lauren Bodin started the fourth quarter with a three-point play to keep the Rebels in the game, getting fouled on a jump-shot and finishing her free throw.  Shortly after, however, Feehan began to pull away behind the scoring of sophomore Maddie Jolin, who scored 24 points throughout the game, 16 of which came in the second half.  Despite the momentum going in Feehan’s favor for much of the last quarter, Walpole junior Bri Doherty came off the bench to help King underneath, putting up six points of her own along with seven rebounds in the second half.

The closest Walpole got to Feehan came at the start of the fourth when they cut the defecit to six, but Walpole was unable to contain the Shamrock’s talented line-up.  After being forced to foul in the final minute of the game, allowing Feehan to pull away even more after making the majority of their foul shots, Walpole fell to the Shamrocks 71-56.  King led Walpole with 23 points and 16 rebounds, while Bodin added 14, senior captain Bridget Nicholson added ten, and senior Darci Bruce chipped in three as well as Doherty’s six points.  The girls basketball team will have to say goodbye to Bodin, Nicholson, Bruce, and senior Michelle Monohan.  Junior Elizabeth Ryan said, “We really wanted to win it for the seniors, but the loss will just be even more motivation for us next year.  We’ll come back more determined because of it.”