WA Girls’ Basketball wins against Bedford despite nearly losing lead
Junior Angela Alibrandi taking a shot
January 23, 2016
The girls’ basketball team scraped a win this Friday during their home game against Bedford with a score 56-49. The Grey Ghosts maintained a comfortable lead for most of the game but slipped under the pressure during the fourth quarter, nearly letting Bedford push ahead.
WA took the first shot of the game but quickly dropped back to defense, where they were pressured by Bedford for the first half of the quarter. Possession switched back and forth between the two teams but eventually fell in WA’s favor with three minutes to go in the quarter.
The Grey Ghosts evened the score 8-8 with a minute and a half left and soon pulled ahead 10-8. However, they did not stay in the lead as Bedford drained a three-pointer and a foul shot, ending the quarter with Bedford leading 12-10.
The pace of the game increased in the second quarter with Bedford quickly gaining a 15-10 lead, but some clean plays and a fast three-pointer from senior Madeline Russell brought the Grey Ghosts up to 15-15. After that, WA began to rack up points without letting Bedford take control for more than a few seconds, although their fouls were stacking up with 8 on their side.
Despite this, WA did not let a single point get away from them for the remainder of the quarter and continued with their offensive pressure. By the end of the quarter, WA had pulled ahead by ten points to end the half-game with a lead 25-15.
This momentum stayed with them throughout the third quarter with junior Angela Alibrandi stealing the first shot of the second half within ten seconds. Two nearly consecutive three-pointers from Emily Bramanti who also helped the Grey Ghost’s lead with several solid foul shots brought WA even further ahead.
Bedford managed to take control and scored towards the end of the quarter, but could not break WA’s lead. With WA taking control again with about a minute left, they finished at an even higher point margin with a score of 44-26 going into the final quarter.
WA soon found itself fighting its lead when Bedford took possession right off the bat, and had increased their lead 44-31 in just over a minute. This lead only increased as time went on, and WA failed to score any points for the first half of the quarter.
With two minutes to spare in the game, WA was still leading 50-42, but had only managed six points in the face of Bedford’s sixteen. Beginning to feel the pressure, the Grey Ghosts began to step up the pace and the game soon became a heated fight for the ball with multiple fouls called on both sides.
Both sides began to score, although their shots were becoming more erratic as the clock ticked, and WA was holding onto a 54-47 lead with half a minute to go in the game. With one shot from either team in the last few seconds of the game, WA came out the winner with a final score of 56-47.
Senior co-captain Madeline Russell pointed out their implementation of new techniques as a positive point, but noted their lacking defense.
“We boxed out really well, we’ve been working on that, and I think we just needed to work on closing out the three-point shooters but other than that, I think we did pretty good,” she said.
Head Coach Russ Coward was pleased with the overall performance of the team but felt that they had lost their grip in the fourth quarter, attributing it to the pressure the team felt.
“I thought we played very well for the first three quarters, I thought the fourth quarter we didn’t play very well. We didn’t handle the pressure well, but otherwise, I’m happy we won. It’s a good team we beat,” said Coward.
