Photos by: Ciara Healy and Julia Kane
Moving to a 4-8 record, Walpole Boys Basketball team started off the second half of their season with a huge 59-52 win against Framingham on Tuesday, Jan. 24.
“It was a team effort,” said Walpole Head Coach Dave St. Martin.
Offensively, the team had one of its best shooting performances of the season by going 6-12 from the three-point line. In previous games, the team took has had a tendency to take more shots from beyond the arc and had a low success rate; however, by limiting the quantity of deep shots they took, both the quality of their shots and their conversion rate seemed to improve.
“Our ball movement was key to our success” said Senior captain Isaiah Shepard.
There was not one player who finished with a large amount of points; instead, the scoring was spread out between multiple players: senior captain Luke Esty with 11 points, senior Brett Von Klock with 13, and sophomore Matt Falvey with 12. Additionally, senior captain Isaiah Shephard ended the game with 8 points and 11 rebounds.
On the defensive side of the ball, the team played a combination of a half-court two-three zone and a full-court two-two-one zone. Although the subtle change from Walpole’s typical man-to-man defense to a zone defense was a risk, it paid off in the end as the Rebels achieved their goal of holding Framingham under 55 points.
“We were able to extend out and keep up with their ball movement to contest their shooters,” said Esty. “[We] really made them work for every basket.”
Even though the team had a rough start to this season, they still have an opportunity to make up for it, and this victory against Framingham could be the catalyst that sets them on a better path forward. With their 4-8 record, the Rebels cannot lose more than three games for the rest of the season if they wish to make the postseason.
“I was proud of the team because they never quit. We lost four games in a row and nobody made excuses. We just worked hard,” said St. Martin. “Hopefully, this will get us playing well again.”
Tonight, the Rebels take on Wellesley at 5 p.m. at Walpole High School. Walpole Girls Basketball will play Wellesley at 6:30 p.m. at home after they boys game.
