The boys’ basketball team fell to the Newton-South Lions on Tuesday, January 5th at 7:00pm by a score of 54-46. The team’s inability to create space for their shooters as well as taking poor, contested shots led to their defeat and has left the team with much to improve before their next contest.

WA had a promising start, with senior captain Pat Coffey draining a three pointer. However, the story of the game began at this moment, with NS dropping a three of their own. The Lions began to match and eventually outplay the Ghosts on offense and defense and this continued for the entire first half and beyond.

The Ghosts started a pattern of taking contested shots, especially three pointers, which led to missed shots, resulting in NS points at the other end. This poor shot selection came back to hurt the boys throughout the rest of the game.

Another struggle for the Ghosts was abundant fouls early in the game, as they amassed 4 team fouls in the very beginning of the first quarter. This allowed the Lions to take several foul shots and increase their lead early on.

Finally, poor defense plagued the Ghosts in the first half, as they allowed high percentage shots inside the paint to the Lions. After a timeout by Head Coach Chris Bramanti, the boys improved their defensive game at the end of the first quarter, and the effort by WA seemed to rise significantly.

However, the first half did not end with success, as WA turned the ball over twice, translating to more NS points. They went into the locker room at halftime trailing by a significant margin.

The poor ball handling by WA continued to plague the boys at the very start of the second half, as early turnovers as well as fouls led to NS extending their lead.

Eventually, with the deficit for WA up to twelve points, all seemed to be lost and the deflated crowd appeared ready to call it a night.

However, a fast start in the fourth quarter gave the fans hope, but sadly for them, still translated to the expected result.

Senior Scotty Callahan grab several offensive rebounds on his own shot in the start of the final quarter which energized the team. While still being matched by NS, WA cut their deficit to 3 with three minutes remaining in the game. This can be credited to outstanding shots by junior Jon Glidden, who hit a clutch three to bring the boys close.

However, these efforts proved to be too little, too late. Back and fourth scoring by both teams proved this a fact, and with WA down by 4 with under a minute remaining, the team took to intentional fouls and began to chuck up threes in hopes that luck would go their way.

It did not, and WA ultimately lost the game despite a last minute push to win.

The boys will face Cambridge Rindge and Latin away this Friday, January 8th at 7:00pm.