{"id":47414,"date":"2024-03-07T14:58:48","date_gmt":"2024-03-07T14:58:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelandmark.com\/?p=47414"},"modified":"2024-03-07T14:58:48","modified_gmt":"2024-03-07T14:58:48","slug":"wachusett-girls-win-first-of-post-season-battles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/2024\/03\/07\/wachusett-girls-win-first-of-post-season-battles\/","title":{"rendered":"Wachusett girls win first of post-season battles"},"content":{"rendered":"
By John Orrell<\/em>
\nLandmark Correspondent<\/em><\/div>\n

HOLDEN \u2014 The shift from regular season competition to playoffs can be daunting, but for the Wachusett Regional High girls basketball team, not so much.<\/p>\n

The now 21-0 Mountaineers (No. 2 seed) ensured a seamless transition with near impenetrable defense and a prolific offense to upend the visiting Brockton High Boxers (No. 34 seed) on Feb. 29. The 54-17 MIAA Division 1 victory propelled Wachusett on to a second-round home matchup with No. 15 seed Braintree High (11-10) earlier this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really didn\u2019t want this to be our last game, so we worked as hard as possible,\u201d said senior co-captain Liz Cain. \u201cOur coaches stress hustle in practice, so we\u2019re always running and getting conditioned. That really allows us to translate onto the court.\u201d<\/p>\n

That sentiment echoed through the team, including senior co-captain Rileigh Leary.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no doubt in my mind that this wasn\u2019t going to be our last game,\u201d Leary said postgame. \u201cWe\u2019re at the point in the season where every game could be our last game, and we have to play like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is step one of five,\u201d she said, referring to the number of wins necessary to reach the team’s goal of a state championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not getting too far ahead of ourselves, but they have a collective goal, and this is the first step towards achieving that goal,\u201d said head coach Jim Oxford. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter who we\u2019re playing. If we play good defense, we\u2019re going to shut things down. We just have to commit to playing great defense and boxing out and rebounding, and we\u2019re in great shape.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wachusett did, in fact, place themselves in great shape by shutting out the Boxers in the second quarter. That stoppage and a strong infusion of scoring allowed the green and white to pull away for keeps by taking a 30-9 halftime advantage into the locker room.<\/p>\n

Leading scorers on the night included Mary Gibbons with 14 points, along with Cain (13), Leary (11) and Hannah Best (7).<\/p>\n

Brockton had defeated No. 31 seed North Andover in the first round of the tournament before having their season come to an end at the hands of the Mountaineers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t have to adjust to too many things,\u201d said Oxford. \u201cWe just had to play well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The highlight play of the game could easily go to Leary, who buried a 3-point buzzer-beater at the close of the first half.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was an exciting way to end the half,\u201d she said. “I think that boosted morale.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur coaches told us that we had five steps to go and this was step one,\u201d said Best. \u201cWe just took care of it, and we look forward to our next game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By John Orrell Landmark Correspondent HOLDEN \u2014 The shift from regular season competition to playoffs can be daunting, but for the Wachusett Regional High girls basketball team, not so much. The now 21-0 Mountaineers (No. 2 seed) ensured a seamless transition with near impenetrable defense and a prolific offense to upend the visiting Brockton High […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47415,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}