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Photo by Nicole Harnishfeger
Angela Paterson drives past Nauset’s Brittany Taylor during Saturday’s 55-49 win over the Division II Warriors. Paterson scored a game-high 25 points in the victory.
Boys Basketball Photo Gallery |
By Allison Goldsmith
I&M Sports Editor
Things keep getting better for the girls varsity basketball team this season. With two close wins over top Cape opponents Chatham and Nauset, a Lighthouse Conference victory over Cape Cod Academy and the celebration of head coach Willis Ferreira’s 200th career win, there is reason to be impressed.
The Whalers edged Chatham 52-50 last Wednesday, beat Nauset 55-49 Saturday for Ferreira’s milestone victory, and won at Cape Cod Academy 60-27 Monday.
Nantucket improved to 13-1 overall and a perfect 4-0 in the Lighthouse Conference as it heads into the final stretch of the season.
The Whalers have a less challenging run of games ahead, as they are home against Sturgis Friday and travel to Norfolk Saturday, two teams they defeated easily earlier in the season. Provincetown will wrap up the Lighthouse Conference schedule next Saturday before the Whalers travel to the Martha’s Vineyard Island Invitational Presidents Day weekend to face tougher competition.
“We want to be a high seed so teams come to visit us and have to get on that boat and we have somewhat of a home-court advantage,” Ferreira said. “The Vineyard tournament will be good going in. Those teams are good and we are going to have to play well to win.”
After playing back-to-back high-intensity games against Chatham and Nauset this week, the Whalers paid a visit to Cape Cod Academy, a team they defeated 57-8 the week before.
“We still want to play hard when we are up there. Sometimes we get lazy. We don’t have to score right away, but we have to run our offense, make good passes and still play good defense,” Ferreira said.
The Whalers tried to stay away from the fast break, and instead work on the half-court offense. Nantucket ran away with a 34-15 lead by halftime en route to the easy win.
Angela Paterson paced the Whalers with 18 points, including four three-pointers, while Shantel Hanniford scored 11 and pulled down 11 rebounds, and Jessica Halford added 10 points. Alicia Paterson, called up from JV for the game, scored her first varsity points off an assist from her sister.
Kendra Hickman scored 20 of the Seahawks’ 27 points.
Milestone victory
The air in the gymnasium was heavy with anticipation from the opening tip-off Saturday against Nauset. With a tough opponent in the Division II Warriors as well as Ferreira’s milestone victory hanging in the balance, the Whalers attacked Nauset with a full-court press and accurate shooting.
“I don’t think anyone was overconfident at all. They knew they had to play hard and play well. I don’t know how well we played, but we played extremely hard,” Ferreira said.
Five different scorers put the ball in the basket in the first eight minutes as Nantucket spread it around to take a 13-10 lead after the first quarter. Paterson nailed a three-point shot early to get things going and then added two nice-look assists on baskets by Hanniford and Halford. Grace-Anne Tornovish came off the bench to contribute quality minutes, especially on the defensive end of the floor.
The Whalers found themselves in some foul trouble early in the second quarter as Hanniford picked up three fouls before the midway point and Bianca Brown had three before the half. Caroline Stanton came off the bench and alongside Ashley Clinger, helped close out the half for the Whalers without missing a beat in keeping the Warriors out of the paint. Nantucket scored only two field goals the rest of the quarter, but still went into the half with the 24-16 lead.
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Photo by Nicole Harnishfeger
Girls basketball action against Nauset. |
“Those guys off the bench did a good job of filling in. That was a tough spot. There were a couple minutes there where we had not too much offense, but the rebounds where there,” Ferreira said.
In the third quarter Lindsay Fry was the hot hand, hitting a long jump shot and taking the feed from Paterson off a steal for the layup to give Nantucket a 12-point lead.
The fouls really started to pile up for Nantucket late in the third quarter and early in the fourth as Nauset clawed its way back into striking distance. With four fouls on three starters, two of whom eventually fouled out, the Whalers were put in a tough spot in the final quarter.
“If we are going to be successful here down the stretch, all of those guys have to stay out of foul trouble. They have to play smarter. We talked about it half time and we talked about it on the bench, you have to play smart. You can’t try to block everybody’s shot,” Ferreira said.
The Warriors pulled within eight points with time winding down, but Nantucket was able to slow the pace and keep the ball away from Nauset. The lead shrunk to five points before Hanniford sunk two free throws with 21 seconds on the clock to seal the win.
Paterson dropped a game-high 25 points in the victory, while Nauset’s Maddie Walters led the Warriors with 13 points.
Devil of a time
In the rematch against Chatham last Wednesday, the Blue Devils were out to avenge a 68-28 shellacking on Nantucket earlier in the season.
“I don’t know if we are 40 points better than a lot of these teams that we have played. I knew we weren’t going to win by 40. They played well,” Ferreira said. “We got 20 out of Paterson and 13 out of Hanniford and we didn’t get much out of anyone else.”
Chatham’s Taylor Masachi became the school’s all-time girls basketball leading scorer in the game, pacing the Blue Devils with a game-high 27 points.
While the Blue Devils stepped up in the scoring column, the Whalers did not evenly distribute the ball on offense.
The game was close through the first half and even into the third quarter before the Whalers opened up a small lead late in the game.
Nantucket led 51-44 before Chatham hit back-to-back three-point shots to make it a one-point game with under a minute remaining. But the Whalers’ defense held the Blue Devils without another basket through the final seconds and Paterson hit one of two free throw attempts to give Nantucket the two-point win.
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