On Friday, February 14, Westford Academy Boys’ Basketball defeated Lowell Catholic in their last game of the regular season. The score was 63-46.

Senior Jake Barisano led the Ghosts in terms of points, racking up to 12 points, closely followed by senior  Aryah Purandare with 11 points and junior Matthew Sepe with ten points.

Immediately after the jump ball, Aryah Purandare made the first point of the game. The first quarter started off extremely close. WA made many layups and gave up three fouls. The score at the end of the quarter was 14-15, with Lowell Catholic in the lead.

The second quarter started off slow, with WA making the first point. With 4:29 left in the quarter, WA coach Chris Bramanti took a timeout to strategize. After the timeout, the Ghosts came out playing more intensely and fast-paced. Lowell Catholic’s biggest offensive threat was junior Isaiah Taylor, who scored 23 points, exactly half of his team’s points. When WA started to gain momentum, Taylor resorted to pushing and fouling the Ghosts, which resulted in several free throws. Whenever Lowell Catholic gained a free throw, Westford spectators would yell in excitement. The score after the second quarter was 25- 19 with WA in the lead.

The third quarter continued with the same speed and urgency the second quarter ended with. With 4:26 left in the game, Coach Bramanti called a timeout after Lowell Catholic increased their pace. When they came back out, Lowell Catholic made several fouls. When Taylor was one foul away from being fouled out of the game, he was subbed out to cool down. When he came back in, he was much more cautious to not make any fouls. The quarter ended with a score of 46-25 with WA in the lead.

When the fourth quarter started, senior Declan Morse made the first point for the Ghosts. As many starting seniors were subbed out, juniors started to take over the game. One of these juniors was crowd-favorite Owen Bramanti. With 1:40 left in the game, Bramanti made a full-court pass to one of his teammates, who then passed it around a few times. It eventually came back to Bramanti, who made a layup with the same ball that he passed over.

The Ghosts have qualified for the state tournament and play Wachusett on February 24 at 6:30; the spirit will be white-out.