Watertown girls’ basketball advances to state quarterfinals
Raiders too big for Belmont; next stop, Division 2 North title game Saturday at Tsongas Center
Raider Times photo / Walter Morris
The Watertown High girls’ basketball tournament game poses after defeating Belmont, 49-40, in its MIAA tournament game with Belmont on Wednesday night at Mystic Valley High School in Malden. The Raiders advanced to the Division 2 North championship game against Pentucket on Saturday, March 7, at Tsongas Center in Lowell. Game time is 2 p.m.
March 5, 2015
Playoff wins feel good, and beating fierce rivals feels great. Pulling off both in one night is especially memorable.
Watertown-Belmont is as fierce as high school sports rivalries get, and playoff meetings only raise the stakes, as bragging rights are on the line, along with postseason aspirations.
It would be the Watertown High girls’ basketball team, however, that would get the best of its rivals for the second time this season, pulling out a 49-40 victory Wednesday at Mystic Valley High in Malden to return to the Division 2 North championship game.
Watertown’s Shannon Murphy wins the opening tip against Belmont during their MIAA girls’ basketball tournament game Wednesday night at Mystic Valley High School in Malden. The Raiders won, 49-40, to return to the Division 2 North championship game against Pentucket on Saturday, March 7, at Tsongas Center in Lowell. Game time is 2 p.m.
The top-seeded Raiders (20-0) advanced to play No. 2 Pentucket (23-1) on Saturday, March 7, at Tsongas Center in Lowell. Game time is 2 p.m.
“We set a good tone,” said Watertown head coach Pat Ferdinand. “The turnovers were costly, and they made it tight, but we set a good tempo. We just need to be more secure with the ball.”
Very strong performances on the inside from sophomore Shannon Murphy (10 points, 9 rebounds) and Katelyn Rourke (13 points) were key to the Watertown triumph, and a pair of clutch free throws from junior Michaela Antonellis in the final minute sealed the game for the Raiders.
“That was definitely the game plan, that’s what we looked for,” said Ferdinand of the focus on the interior. “We said, you know what, we’re going to try to feed it inside and get some layups. We thought that last game [against Tewksbury], our interior players didn’t live up to what they could do, and we wanted to get the ball inside with good interior passing and get some easy layups.”
Things stayed tight as the Raiders couldn’t manage to take any sort of commanding lead through the first half and Belmont got closed the gap to 3 points midway through the second quarter. A late run by the Raiders, led by Rourke, blew the game open as Watertown took a 9-point lead into halftime (31-22).
The lead grew to 38-25 at the end of three, and it looked like the Raiders had the win wrapped up, but the Marauders refused to go away.
Aided by a raucous traveling fan base, and with the Marauders fans on their feet, the Belmont girls rallied in the final two minutes, taking advantage of multiple missed free throws and turnovers, cutting a 12-point Raider lead to just 6 with a minute to go.
“Their fan base was so loud,” said Ferdinand, “it felt like a home crowd for them.”
A valiant comeback effort was halted in its tracks with under a minute to go, when Antonellis stepped to the line and sank two free throws with 53 seconds to go to effectively ice the game for the Raiders.
Another free throw from Rourke brought the Raider lead to 9 points, which would prove to be the final margin in a 49-40 win.
“I’m going to coin this phrase,” Ferdinand said. “On game days, when we walk around, we’re going to say ‘Roll Tribe.’ Instead of ‘Roll Tide,’ we say ‘Roll Tribe.’ ”
With the win, the Raiders return to the Division 3 North championship game, where they will take on Pentucket to see who will move on to TD Garden and continue the chase for a state title.
The Raiders will need crowd support, however, a point Ferdinand made sure to make.
“Our fan base, we need to get on it,” he said. “We need to be able to be loud and disruptive all the time. We need our crowd to be a sixth man for us, and go nuts.
“We can’t just be spectators, we need to be fans … Go nuts in the crowd, we want the crowd going crazy, the bench going crazy. It’s a fun environment that way.”
–March 5, 2015–
