Westford Academy Boys’ Basketball suffered their seventh loss of the season by a score of 43-47 on Friday, Feb. 2 at a home game against Cambridge Rindge & Latin School (CRLS), making their season record 7-7. The spirit of the night was ‘pink out’ in support of breast cancer awareness, and a speech was made about the subject before the start.
The game was neck and neck throughout, with CRLS always staying within an eight point lead over WA and WA making it into the lead for some time during the third quarter. According to head coach Christopher Bramanti, the team’s weakness lied within their offense.
“We’ve gotta get our offense situated. I don’t think we’re executing as well as we can offensively,” Bramanti said. “We’ve gotta do a deep dive, figure out what works and what’s not working and elevate.”
In the first quarter WA took the lead with a score of 10-8 by use of their aggressive starting offense and junior Vishal Rampur making an early three point shot. According to Bramanti, the team was mostly led by Rampur and senior Nick Russo.
“Vishal has been our best player all year, he’s really done everything for us,” Bramanti said. “Overall we’ve practiced really well and that said, even the guys who don’t play have been doing really well.”
During the second quarter, both teams scored eleven points, allowing WA to maintain their two point lead, leaving the score 21-19 after two free throws from sophomore, Teddy Hirbour, helped bolster the team’s score. The quarter two score varied highly with WA even dipping into a point deficit before bringing it back before the end of the quarter, Cambridge scoring two points just before the buzzer to narrow it down.
The third quarter was when things started to look downhill for WA. Over the course of the game, WA committed 16 fouls to Cambridge’s 11. Cambridge made six out of a staggering twenty one free throws and WA made three out of four, lending a slight advantage to Cambridge.
The beginning of the third quarter was WA’s longest time in the lead, but the team didn’t manage to fully grasp it, making no further scores for the first half of the quarter. Then, action broke out and back-to-back three pointers from either side left WA still slightly in the lead but they began to see their downfall as Cambridge amped up the aggression.
Nearing the end of the third quarter WA hit their biggest point deficit, with CRLS in the lead by eight points forcing WA to timeout. Following the timeout, junior Nate Pitts made a quick and effective play, reversing the roles and taking an offensive break down the side of the court resulting in a three point shot from junior Finn McKeon. Though the gap was narrowed, WA was still behind 39-37 by the end of the quarter.
Entering the fourth quarter, tensions were high as it could be anybody’s game. The fourth quarter was the lowest scoring, dragging out the anxiety of who would win. WA managed to tie it up near the midpoint of the quarter but managed no more progression. Overall, the game ended 43-47 despite a last attempt from Russo to tie it up with a three pointer before Cambridge scored a free throw and the game became unsalvageable, with less than a second on the clock to spare. The game ended, and WA was defeated.
Although the game was a loss for WA, the team still fought hard until the end, keeping everyone on their toes. Key players in this game according to Bramanti were Rampur, who collected eight defensive rebounds and scored four out of fifteen shots, making for ten points, the highest of both on the team, followed by Pitts who scored three out of eleven shots making for eight points.
“I love playing Cambridge, I think they’re really well coached and they work hard, and you have to work hard to beat them,” Bramanti said. “I’m glad we had the pink out night tonight, we got lots of support and it was a good night even though we lost.”
The boys next game will be Tuesday, Feb. 6, away vs. Newton at 6:00 p.m.
