WAKEFIELD — The Wakefield High girls’ basketball team improved to 3-1 on the season with a 36-25 win over Newton South on New Year’s Eve at the Charbonneau Field House.
As indicated by the low final score, the Warriors played their best defensive game of the early season, forcing turnovers at an incredible rate.
Senior captain Brooklyn Calder (10 pts, 6 reb, 3 ast, 8 stl) had her best game of the season so far, leading the team in points, assists and steals. Her 8 steals was perhaps most impressive leading the Warriors who collected 21 steals as a team, also getting 4 from senior captain Jade Waterhouse (9 pts, 4 reb, 4 stl) and sophomore Keira O’Brien (6 pts, 3 reb, 4 stl).
The Warriors led 9-6 after the 1st quarter, a top of the key 3 from O’Brien breaking a tie late in the frame.
Perhaps due to it being a rare day game, the Warriors took a while to warm up on the offensive end, only adding 4 points in the 2nd as they took a 13-12 lead into halftime.
Wakefield’s 3rd quarter all but sealed the game as they won it by a count of 14-3, their offense finally starting to match the dominance that continued on the defensive end.
Wakefield had five different scorers in the 3rd, led by junior Emma Ickes (8 pts, 1 reb, 3 ast, 2 stl) who had 5 in the quarter, starting with a corner 3 that followed up O’Brien’s second triple of the game.
Calder’s strong drive and layup gave Wakefield a 21-12 lead and she followed that up with a steal and terrific pass to Ickes to push the lead to 11, which is typically game over for this Warrior team whose defense continues to be relentless regardless of score or time.
A 27-15 lead going into the 4th was more than enough for the Warriors to cruise to their 3rd victory of the season, especially with two hustle plays from Calder and freshman Jayla Conley (2 pts, 3 reb, 2 stl) to start the quarter.
Wakefield will get back to league play tonight when they travel to Stoneham (3-3) at 7:30 p.m.