Warriors can’t find shooting touch in 51-30 setback

GABBY JOLY,  a junior forward (#12), drives to the basket during a recent contest. Joly scored four points in makeup game against Belmont last night. The Warriors dropped a 51-30 contest. (Donna Larsson File Photo)

GABBY JOLY, a junior forward (#12), drives to the basket during a recent contest. Joly scored four points in makeup game against Belmont last night. The Warriors dropped a 51-30 contest. (Donna Larsson File Photo)

BELMONT — After three previous postponements due to snow, the Wakefield Memorial High girls’ basketball team finally got its game in against Belmont last night at the Wenner Field House.

While the Warriors didn’t want another postponement with four more games remaining on the schedule, they certainly would’ve liked to have played the contest at another time as they didn’t have one of their better performances.

Wakefield fell behind by 10 points after the first quarter and could never get into an offensive rhythm as it suffered a 51-30 setback.

The Warriors record fell to 10-6 overall on the season and 8-6 in the Middlesex League Freedom division. Even though Wakefield lost the game, it has already wrapped up a state tournament berth and will be playing beyond the end of the regular season next week.

Wakefield trailed 14-4 after the first quarter and 23-10 at halftime. The Marauders outscored Wakefield 22-8 in the third quarter to open up a commanding 45-18 advantage.

“Belmont got the lead early and we couldn’t catch them,” said Head Coach Meghan O’Connell. “Belmont outplayed us. They pressed us with a full court press and we turned the ball over. We made an adjustment and handled their press better but we could never get into an offensive rhythm. The girls worked hard but we could never get our offense going.”

Leading the way for the Warriors was senior guard Amanda Boulter who scored seven points. One of Boulter’s baskets was three-pointer.

Senior forward Jillian Raso, junior forward Gabby Joly and senior forward Julia Filippone each checked in with four points apiece.

Junior guard Grace Hurley scored three points, while senior forward Daniella Iannuzzi, senior guard Alyssa Rossino, senior guard Mackenzie Collins and freshman guard Olivia Dziadyk each had two points.

Wakefield emptied its entire bench with the score becoming so lopsided in the second half. Seeing playing time in the contest were senior guard Nicole Galli, junior forward Julia Derendal, junior guard Mia Joyce, sophomore forward Emma Butler, freshman guard Hannah Dziadyk and sophomore forward Mackenzie Story.

Carly Christofori led all scorers in the game with 10 points for host Belmont.

The Warriors won’t be able to dwell on the defeat as they have two games in two days. Wakefield hosts Burlington tonight at 5:30 p.m. in the regular season home finale at the Charbonneau Field House. The Warriors then have a makeup game against Melrose, which has been moved to Saturday from Sunday in anticipation of the latest snow storm. Tomorrow’s game will be still be at noon against Melrose at the Melrose Veterans Memorial Middle School Gymnasium.

Wakefield closes out the regular season on Monday and Tuesday as it plays in the Hamilton-Wenham Holiday Tournament at Hamilton-Wenham. The Warriors play Hingham in the first round on Monday night at 5 p.m. The time and opponent of Tuesday’s game has yet to be announced.

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Belmont 51, WAKEFIELD 30

At Wenner Field House, Belmont

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WAKEFIELD (30) — Boulter 2 2 7; Iannuzzi 0 2 2; Galli 0 0 0; Raso 1 2 4; Derendal 0 0 0; Joly 2 0 4; Rossino 1 0 2; Hurley 0 3 3; Joyce 0 0 0; Butler 0 0 0; Collins 1 0 2; Filippone 2 0 4; H.Dziadyk 0 0 0; O.Dziadyk 1 0 2; Story 0 0 0. Totals 10 9 30.

Belmont (51) — Magno 2 0 4; Maryeon 1 0 3; Eschenbach-Smith 2 0 4; Lyons 1 1 3; Stewart 4 0 8; Nikolaidis 1 2 4; Call 3 0 9; Bragg 2 0 4; Christofori 3 3 10; Herlihy 1 0 2. Totals 20 6 51.

Score by Quarters — WAKEFIELD 4-6-8-12 — 30. Belmont 14-9-22-6 — 51.

Three-point FGs — Wak, Boulter 1. Bel, Call 3, Maryeon 1, Christofori 1.