THE WARRIORS celebrate their victory over Burlington on Tuesday. (Dan Pawlowski Photo)
By DAN BYRNE
WAKEFIELD — On Tuesday, the Wakefield High girls’ varsity basketball team hosted Burlington in the first game of a home double header at the Charbonneau Field House.
The Warriors kept their Middlesex League title hopes alive with a 68-21 dominating victory over a massively short-handed Red Devils squad.
When asked post-game whether or not he had any advanced notice that he’d be facing a weakened Burlington side, Warriors’ head coach Jason Pavey replied, “Of course I had no idea, but we play against who is out there.”
The Warriors jumped out to a quick lead, outscoring their opponent 17-3 in the quarter. Junior captain guard Emma Shinney had 6 of her 14 points in the first quarter. The Warriors had five players score in the quarter and nine players score in the game.
Senior captain Sophie Brown wasted no time at the start of the 2nd quarter making it a 20-3 lead, as she banked in a 3-pointer off the window from the wing. Junior forward Mia Forti added to the deficit after the Red Devils turned the ball over and she sank another 3-pointer. In the 2nd quarter, the Warriors dominated by a score of 12-1.
“The kids were really, really focused for this game, so I liked our chances no matter who we were facing,” coach Pavey said. “Every game is an opportunity for us to get better, to clean up some stuff.”
Brown had 7 of her game-high 17 points in the 2nd quarter, as the Warriors took a 29-4 lead into halftime.
After halftime, the Warriors continued to pour it on, lighting up the scoreboard for 23 third quarter points.
Senior captain guard Ashlee Purcell had 5 of her 7 points in the quarter, while Brown and Shinney had 6 points each in the third.
The game was long over before the start of the 4th quarter, when the Warriors held a 52-11 lead.
On coaching his team with a big lead, Pavey said, “Competing is always a challenge, and at that time it’s like, how do we continue to execute without thinking about time and score? I thought regardless of who we played, our defensive intensity was there. I thought we executed on offense, shots started falling, so it was a good win.”
Wakefield was able to play just about everyone on the bench and had contributions in the scoring column from Sydney Lombardi, Brooklyn Calder, Emma Quinn, Aliza Margolis, Hannah Hill, and Emma Shinney. Shea Suntken, Emma Greatorex, Taylor Campbell, and Elena Lotti all graced the floor as well and contributed in non-scoring aspects.
On his bench contributions the coach added, “I think we’re a really deep team, we dressed 13 kids tonight, they all got a varsity uniform because I believe when their number is called they can execute, whether it’s the first quarter or the fourth quarter, it doesn’t matter.”
Burlington managed only 17 points in the second half, as they put up 10 points in the 4th quarter. Their senior captain guard Michela Giordano had 8 of her 9 points in the 4th quarter, she was their leading scorer. They were without their other captain, Alyvia Peña due to injury, along with a host of other players. They began the game with only eight players in uniform before a few JV players joined the bench at halftime.
Next up for the Warriors is a massively consequential trip to Watertown Friday, followed by another big time match up with Stoneham on Saturday the 22nd.
Coach Pavey ended by saying, “We want to take advantage and get as many wins as we can, we’re trying to win the league title and we’re trying to get a home (tournament) game here, so we still have a lot of work to do, taking care of business. We have Watertown on Friday night, that’s going to have huge implications in the league. Then we have Stoneham and a rematch with Bedford. So, two in the league and Bedford is undefeated. But we want to be playing our best basketball at the end of the season and I thought today was a good start for this stretch run that we’re in.”