After press time: North Reading defeats Shawsheen Tech on Senior Night (Feb 9)
LYNNFIELD — On Thursday, Feb. 1, the North Reading girls’ basketball team secured a spot in the MIAA State Tournament in convincing fashion with a 65-31 victory on the road at Lynnfield, improving to 10-5 on the season.
A strong 24-10 second quarter allowed the Hornets to take a 35-16 halftime lead and followed that with a 21-10 third quarter to open up an insurmountable 56-26 advantage after three quarters.
Another strong defensive effort forced 26 Lynnfield turnovers.
Leading the scoring for North Reading was senior Bella Cannalonga with a game-high 15 points to go along with 6 assist and 3 steals. Senior Caitlin Reilly (11 points), sophomore Juliet Wasilewski (11 points), freshman Sophie Gallivan (9 points, 8 rebounds), freshman Ariana Demetri (7 points, 3 rebounds, 3 steals) and sophomore Allie Lanciani (4 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists) all provided plenty of scoring help.
The next game on the schedule is Thursday when the Hornets will host Newburyport at 6:30 p.m.
The game against Shawsheen Tech originally scheduled for Feb. 2 was rescheduled to Feb. 9 at 6:30 p.m. There will be a Senior Night celebration for North Reading seniors and captains Cannalonga, Reilly and Maggie Schulz.
With five games remaining, the Hornets will be looking to finish strong and possibly secure a home game in the tournament. North Reading was ranked No. 19 in the latest MIAA Div. 3 power rankings. They will need to improve to a 16 seed in order to host a first round tournament game.
