Girls’ hoop earns No. 28 seed, hosts Southeastern Tech on Wednesday

ERIKA PASQUALE and the LHS girls’ basketball team will host Southeastern Regional on Wednesday at 3 p.m. (File Photo)

By STEPHEN MARTELLUCCI

LYNNFIELD — The seedings for the MIAA Division 3 state tournament came out last Saturday and the Lynnfield High girls’ basketball team found out who they will open with.

The Pioneers will play a preliminary-round game on Wednesday (March 1) at home against Southeastern Regional Tech with tip-off coming at 3 p.m.

Lynnfield is the 28^th-seed while Southeastern Regional is the 37^th-seed. The Pioneers enter the game with a record of 9-11 while the Hawks are 10-8.

The Hawks are in the Mayflower League and are based in Easton.

“I saw some film on them,” said Pioneers head coach Sue Breen. “They are a big team and they have a point guard who can shoot.”

This will be the first game for Lynnfield since Feb. 18 when they beat Melrose in the regular-season finale 41-37. The Pioneers did not play any scrimmage games during the layoff.

“I thought that our practice on Monday afternoon felt like a real practice since we know who we are playing,” said Breen.

Senior Bella George is the team’s top scorer averaging 13 points per game while junior Jaelynn Moon is second averaging 6.2. Erika Pasquale is third on the team in scoring as the sophomore is averaging 5.5 points.

Taylor Valiton is the team’s top rebounder pulling down an average of seven boards per contest.

Breen knows, with her roster that the key to postseason success will be the defense as the Pioneer offense has yet to score 50 points in a game this season.

“Playing good defense helps relax our kids on offense,” said Breen. “If we can get two players who score in double digits, that would be a big help.”

Although her team is very inexperienced with playoff action, Breen hopes that the girls who have played postseason games in other sports at LHS will help them.

If the Pioneers defeat the Hawks, they will visit Dover-Sherborn in the Round of 32 game on March 3 with that contest starting at 5:30 p.m. Dover-Sherborn is the 5th seed and will enter Friday’s game with a mark of 14-6.