After press time:
Newburyport game cancelled due to inclement weather (Feb. 6)
IPSWICH — The North Reading girls’ basketball team finished a recent three-game stretch with two wins and a loss and is now 14-2 on the season.
On Jan. 29 North Reading traveled to Ipswich to face a shorthanded team and came away with a 58-7 win. Makenzie Murphy and Addie Hajj led the way with 11 points and 10 points respectively, with Sophia Gallivan and Ariana Demetri adding 8 points each. Freshman Victoria Roach scored her first varsity points finishing with 4.
The week’s most exciting game was a 39-36 overtime win over Lynnfield on Teacher Appreciation Night in North Reading on Friday.
In a back-and-forth contest, Lynnfield held a 3-point lead with 18 seconds remaining when North Reading took their final timeout to draw up a game-tying attempt. The execution was perfect and Ariana Demetri drained the game-tying 3 to send it into overtime.
In overtime, Demetri buried two more 3’s to lead the Hornets to the win.
Demetri finished with 14 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists. Kiersten Higgins (5 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals) changed the momentum of the game in the 4th quarter with a huge steal and layup at a time when Lynnfield was in control of the game.
On a night where North Reading was dealing with injuries and foul trouble, they received some huge second half contributions from freshman Hannah Frew (4 points, 4 rebounds) and sophomore Gabby Montanye (3 points, 3 assists).
This three-game stretch concluded with a 38-23 road loss at Malden Catholic. In a rematch from the Holiday Tournament final game where the Hornets were victorious, the Lancers used a strong 20-1 start to make this a long night for North Reading. The Hornets did finish with an 8-point run by Gallivan (11 points, 7 rebounds) to get into halftime trailing 20-9.
The Lancers quickly extended that lead back to 26-9 to start the second half and the Hornets never could get into a consistent offensive flow to make the comeback.
“We fell behind by such a big deficit and just could not dig our way out,” said head coach Bob Romeo. “We really struggled on offense tonight as we just couldn’t generate enough good shots and when we did we just were not making them with any consistency.”
North Reading travels to Newburyport on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. and follows that up with another road game at Pentucket on Monday at 6:30 p.m.