Free Throw Barrage In Fourth Helps Seal The Victory For Lady Raiders

If outsiders had to guess to contents within both coaches post-game speeches after the girls’ basketball game between the Wakefield Lady Warriors and the Melrose Lady Red Raiders on Monday night, defensive praise was probably one of the topics of discussion.

Baskets were certainly hard to find on the court as the Lady Red Raiders defeated Wakefield, 40-28.

The loss was another disappointing offensive performance for the Lady Warriors following a 53-22 loss against Reading several days earlier, and follows a common theme where they have failed to break the 40 point threshold in all but three of their games so far this season.

After three deadlocked quarters , each of which ended with the Warriors within a basket of taking the lead, Melrose was able to pull away with 20 points in the fourth led by eight combined points at the charity stripe from sophomore Sydney Doherty and junior Jenny McGee and two free throw conversions a piece from juniors Jill Slabacheski and Lia Limone.

Now it’s back to the drawing board following a game her team could have won if they had held on following the tenacious defense from their first three quarters.

“We need to have an intensive effort for four quarters, and hopefully our offense will eventually catch up to our defense,” Wakefield head coach Meghan O’Connell said.

A lack of offense has also been a problem for Melrose this season, as they have broken the 40 point threshold even less than Wakefield, scoring 43 in their opening night win against Belmont and 48 in a loss against Lexington earlier this month.

“We’re not necessarily a high scoring team, so we have to have good defense to keep us in games,” Melrose head coach Robert Ferrante, whose squad only scored 20 by the end of the third quarter said. “And tonight was no different, we have to keep our opponents’ scores to a minimum if we want to win.”

While the game may have been a battle of defensive juggernauts, Ferrante feels lucky to leave with the win given that the Lady Warriors may be able to break their streak of low scoring games from what he saw in them on this night, particularly given the similarities between the two teams.

“They get better every time we see them, and fortunately for us we played one of our better games,” said Ferrante. “I have a feeling that they will have a pretty good second half of the season.”

Junior Danielle Joly and freshman Karina Vargas each scored seven points and grabbed a combined 16 rebounds in the losing effort for Wakefield while Limone led all scorers for Melrose with 12

Melrose climbs to 3-5 with the victory and will now travel to Belmont on Friday while Wakefield falls to 3-7 and will hope to correct the ship as Stoneham comes to town later in the week.