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Photo by Nicole Harnishfeger
Caroline Stanton fights with Sturgis’ Brittany Korbel during the Whalers’ 57-14 victory over the Lighthouse Conference opponents. The Whalers can earn a perfect league record with a victory over Provincetown Saturday at home.
Boys Basketball Photo Gallery |
By Allison Goldsmith
I&M Sports Editor
It was another easy week for the girls basketball team, which dominated all three opponents it faced. The Whalers took out Division II Dennis-Yarmouth 48-27, Sturgis 57-14 and Norfolk 70-39.
Nantucket has won 14 straight games and improved to 16-1 overall. The Whalers have three games left on the regular-season schedule before the postseason tournament gets underway.
The squad has a potential milestone game on tap this weekend, as Angela Paterson will gun for the Nantucket High School girls basketball all-time scoring record Saturday against Provincetown. The senior co-captain needs 24 points to surpass Kari Harvey’s mark of 1,338.
Saturday’s final home game will also promote breast cancer awareness. Both teams will show support by wearing pink warm-up T-shirts donated by the Nantucket Booster’s Club and all proceeds from the gate and concession sales will be donated to the Marla Lamb Fund.
After wrapping up the Lighthouse Conference schedule, the Whalers will travel to the Martha’s Vineyard Island Invitational. They will play Harwich Sunday and then either the Vineyard or Sabis Charter in the championship or consolation game Monday.
While in the last three games the Whalers have defeated their opponents by an average of 32 points per game, Nantucket has not lost focus on its ultimate goal of winning a division championship.
“I think the good thing is we are still playing hard,” head coach Willis Ferreira said. “We don’t have to run the fast breaks, we don’t have to shoot the ball two seconds into the shot clock, but you can still hustle and play defense.”
And just because the Whalers are beating up on every opponent in their path, it doesn’t mean there aren’t areas that Ferreira believes the team still needs to work on.
“We are still a bad foul-shooting team and we really don’t box out very well and those are the things in big games that are going to kill you. If you don’t make foul shots late in games you aren’t going to win a close one,” Ferreira said.
The Whalers have set a short-term goal to win the final three games on the schedule to finish with the best regular season record in girls basketball school history. Last season the squad set the regular-season win mark at 18. Nantucket would also like to earn the top seed in the Division IV South tournament brackets. But it doesn’t end there.
“Obviously winning a state tournament game is not a goal. We want to win the whole thing. For us to do that, we are going to have to get in the gym and get better. There are only two weeks left, but we can still get better in two weeks,” Ferreira said.
Winning streak
Against Norfolk Saturday, the Whalers went up early against the Aggies, spreading the ball around the court.
Five players scored in double digits in the win. Paterson led the way with a game-high 16 points, Bianca Brown dropped 12 while Shantel Hanniford, Lindsay Fry and Jessica Halford scored 10 each. Caroline Stanton chipped in with a season-high eight points.
“That is the type of balanced scoring I like. We are very tough to defend when they are all playing well,” Ferreira said.
Against Sturigs Friday afternoon at home, the Whalers opened with a few new starters on the floor. Halford, Fry, Stanton, Grace-Anne Tornovish and Ashley Clinger got the start against the league foes. Nantucket got off to a slow start, but eventually broke out to a 17-0 lead once Hanniford and Paterson hit the floor.
Nantucket led 30-5 at the half. Paterson finished with a game-high 18 points including four three-pointers. Along with Stanton, Fry and Brown (10 rebounds) scored eight points each.
Against Division II Dennis-Yarmouth last Wednesday, the Whalers had trouble getting the offense going, after defeating the Dolphins by 40 points earlier in the season. Brown gave the Whalers a defensive spark which translated into quick points late in the first quarter. Nantucket broke away to the 17-5 lead after one quarter and 33-11 at halftime.
Hanniford scored 10 of her game-high 16 points in the second quarter. The junior also pulled down 10 rebounds and added three blocks, three assists and three steals. Halford knocked down 15 points, while Paterson scored 12.
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