The WA Girls’ Basketball team brought home their first victory of the season with a 57-12 blowout against Weston High School on December 21 at WA’s home court.

WA started the first quarter with a lot of energy, making it difficult for Weston to get the upper hand. Freshman Maddie Smith was the first to put WA in the lead, scoring a smooth three pointer from the right wing around two minutes into the game. After a series of successful fast breaks and steals from sophomore Diya Jayaraman, Ghosts were up 18-3 starting the second quarter. 

The pressure enforced throughout the game made for strong defensive play from WA players. While Weston only increased their score to five points, Jayaraman buried two consecutive three pointers after a string of good passing from the team. As the first-half ended, the girls worked together to uphold their lead 31-5.

Entering the third quarter, the Ghosts kept up the same combination of passing and teamwork that they had been displaying in previous quarters. Within the first minute, sophomore Faith Williams scored an uncontested three pointer, followed shortly after with a foul shot, and then another basket. Hard blocking and a few well played fast breaks only allowed Weston to score a total of 6 additional points.

The final quarter began with WA leading 41-11 and featured mainly freshmen on the court. Freshmen Saanvi Jha and Sarah Haley both scored three pointers, while freshmen Olivia Pillsbury and Hannah Lupien scored a free throw and a layup. WA also kept up their defense, contributing to their game ending on a high note, winning by a whopping score of 54-12.

“We [executed the] fast break really well, and our passes were on point,” senior captain Alison Mammola said. “I think our outside shots could be a little better, but those will fall once we’re deeper in the season.”

Although Weston was missing a few starting players due to injury, WA got to use a variety of new and young players on the court and their teamwork nailed in their first win of the season.

“It just shows how young we are,” Coach Russell Coward said. “There are a lot of girls who didn’t have a lot of varsity experience this year. But the good thing about having a lot of freshmen and sophomores is that we’ll be pretty great in a year or two.”

Players like Pillsbury are new to the high school sports scene, but prove to have already begun to adapt by the second game of the 22-23 DCL season.

“The intensity is definitely up there,” Pillsbury said. “There’s a lot of pressure on us this year, but I think this season will be good.”

As practices and games continue over Winter Break, Coward is ready to put in the work for the rest of the season.

“We’ve improved a lot from the first day so I’m very happy with the effort,” Coward said. “Now hopefully it will pay off in January and February with a couple wins.”

WA will face Billerica Memorial High school in their next game in Billerica at 7 p.m. on Dec. 22.