By Allison Goldsmith
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Photo by Nicole Harnishfeger
Shantel Hanniford sizes up a shot as West Bridgewater’s Kelly Burley defends in the paint during yesterday’s 55-25 Whaler home win over the Wildcats. Hanniford scored 10 points for Nantucket.
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I&M Sports Editor
The girls basketball team avenged its only loss of the season yesterday afternoon with a 55-25 home trouncing of West Bridgewater. The Whalers played tight defense and dominated the boards, while shutting down the Wildcat offense.
Nantucket improved to 7-1 overall with the victory over one of the toughest opponents on the schedule this season. The Whalers are scheduled to return to Lighthouse Conference action this weekend, hitting the road to face Provincetown on Saturday and Cape Cod Academy next Tuesday.
“We are just so much better now. We understand the concept and we were pretty well prepared,” head coach Willis Ferreira said. “This is who we lost to. Today we showed we belong with the best teams in this division.”
The Whalers had plenty of rest leading up to the game, with 10 days since their last contest, a 52-18 victory over Norfolk.
“I am so proud of them. They worked their tails off in the last 10 days,” said Ferreira.
After facing the Wildcats in only the second game of the season and falling 65-56, the Whalers knew they had to step up their rebounding and defense in order to win the game, Ferreira said.
West Bridgewater was also without the services of its starting point guard yesterday. The Whalers’ game plan involved disrupting fill-in point guard Kate Taylor with tight pressure and keeping control of the Wildcats’ top shooter Julie Conrad.
“They did those things and I thought our depth wore them down as the game went on,” Ferreira said.
Conrad scored only two points on two free throws at the end of the first half.
The Whalers were tagged for a number of fouls early as the Wildcats took the ball strong to the basket. But the Nantucket defense managed to disrupt the West Bridgewater offense and hold it scoreless for nearly nine minutes, while building an 8-2 advantage.
With four minutes left in the first half, Cassie Moran hit a three-point shot to put the Whalers up 14-4. Calli Moore turned on the heat for the remainder of the half, scoring the Whalers’ final seven points for a 21-9 halftime lead.
“They didn’t have an answer for her so we tried to keep going to her,” Ferreira said.
In the second half, Nantucket took control of the game with a number of fast-break points and drives to the basket. Angela Paterson scored all 10 of her points in the second half with three steals and six assists.
“Obviously we look for Angela to score, but when she is passing like that it opens things up for us,” Ferreira said.
Moore led the Whalers with 18 points (including eight-for-10 shooting from the free-throw line) and nine rebounds with all-around solid play in the paint at both ends of the court.
Shantel Hanniford also scored 10 points for Nantucket, while Johnica Farmer and Marianne Bradley scored four points apiece. Kelly Burley led West Bridgewater with seven points and Taylor scored six.
Reach Allison Goldsmith at sports@inkym.com |
