HOLDEN — It’s been said in the arena of all things high school sports that defeating an opponent three times in one season is nigh unto impossible, but for the Wachusett Regional High School girls’ varsity basketball team, not so much.
The Mountaineer girls perhaps saved their best for last, sending Algonquin Regional home for the offseason with a 67-21 drubbing of the Titans, the third win over them in this 2022-2023 campaign. In this one, the stakes were much higher, as both teams entered the MIAA Division 1 state tournament round of 32 hoping to stay alive and move further into the postseason. The victory propels No. 4 seed Wachusett (19-2) on to hosting the No. 20 seed Wellesley High in a round of 16 games on Monday, March 6.
Unfortunately, that all happens after The Landmark goes to press for this issue.
Of the win against the Titans, WRHS girls varsity basketball head coach Jim Oxford had some takeaways.
“We played well. We had two really good days of practice and they brought that momentum and execution into tonight,” Oxford, whose team showed no rust following a week without games, said. “That’s (Algonquin) an athletic team, and they can be stingy on defense.
“We’re in a bracket with some tall teams. We’ve seen them all, but we’ll have to look at the film and break it down for how we want to play each team. If we play teams that are our size, we just have to do our thing and execute. There’s still a lot of work that we have to do.”
“We knew we had to come out strong, and we know that we have to do that every game in this tournament,” echoed senior co-captain Emmy Allyn. “We want to make it all the way. We were super-determined coming into this game and had that winning mentality, giving 100 percent effort to get the job done.”
Wachusett never trailed in this one, coming out with accurate shooting and inexorable defense that allowed the hosts to run off 13 unanswered points to open the game. U.S. Naval Academy-bound Mary Gibbons notched a game high 24 points in just three quarters of play, allowing Oxford to empty his bench, giving nonstarters court time with the point differential so vast. Elizabeth Cain rang up a dozen points while Logan Baker and Rileigh Leary each added 6 points on the night.
Despite the lopsided victory, Oxford sees areas to improve on before headto- head encounters with high ranked teams. No one is taking anything for granted.
“Nights when we don’t shoot well are challenging nights for us, and nights when our post position players aren’t shooting well, that’s even more of a challenge,” said senior Cate King. “Defensively, we played well, and we were able to create offense over defense, and I think that’s a big part of where we are and that helps out a lot.”
“I think we’re deep enough we can fight through foul trouble,” Oxford said. “We keep working away at a lot of little things. I don’t think effort’s going to be an issue for us. They want to win a state title.”
Members of the 20222023 Wachusett Regional High School girls’ varsity basketball team are Rileigh Leary, Emmy Allyn, Mary Gibbons, Liz Cain, Logan Baker. Akosua Adu-Gyamfi, Jaelynn Scott, Cate King, Hannah Best, Lizzy Majersky, Sophie Gibbons and Olivia Reidy. Team captains are Allyn, Baker and Majersky.
