5A Girls Hoops Team Wins Thriller Over Chelmsford

Tewksbury 25 Chelmsford 24

The Tewksbury 5A travel team traveled to Chelmsford and pulled out a great road win with a one point victory. Isabelle Picher led the way with 10 points and 6 rebounds. Michaela Svendsen 6points 4 rebounds and Maggie Penta 6 points 2 steals 2 assists and Rachel Sessa with 2 points 9 rebounds. Jessica Cacciola added 1 pt, 2 assists 3 steals and set the tone defensively with lockdown defense on Chelmsford's tough point guard. Jocelyn Stavros, Stephanie Graffeo, Emily Langone, Brittany Bourassa, Samantha Schultz, Sarah Ciampa and Emily Zuraski all contributed to this victory with great defensive intensity, key rebounding and patience in the offensive end. This was a great overall team victory for the youg Redman girls.

 Revere 26 Tewksbury 24

 The Tewksbury travel girls traveled to Revere and let one slip away losing a nonleague game to Revere 26-24. Jocelyn Stavros and Isabelle Picher were the leading scorers with 6 points each. Emily Zuraski had 4points followed by Sarah Ciampa, Maggie Penta & Jessica Cacciola with 2points each. Emily Langone & Emily Zuraski rounded out the scoring with 1 point each. Stephanie Graffeo & Brittany Bourassa contributed with several steals and rebounds. Tewksbury led the majority of the game but a few late turnovers against the Revere press led to a couple easy baskets and the game went back in forth in the last minute. Time ran out on Tewksbury and a tough lesson was learned the they have to play with full intensity the entire 32 minutes.

 North Andover 33 Tewksbury 16

 The Tewksbury 5A travel team played their third game in three days and fell 33-16 to powerhouse North Andover. This was the second meeting in two weeks against undefeated North Andover and it was another physical game as Tewksbury battled North Andover tooth and nail. Just like the first game, Tewksbury frustrated North Andover with great defensive pressure and trailed 14-8 at the half. The talented and deep North Andover team were just too much to match up against in the second half but they gave North Andover all they could handle. Maggie Penta 5 points was the leading scorer followed by Isabelle Picher 4points, Michaela Svendsen 3points. Jess Cacciola and Emily Langone rounded out the scoring with 2 points each. Stephanie Graffeo, Jocelyn Stavros, Emily Zuraski, Sarah Ciampa, Samantha Schultz, Brittany Bourassa & Rachel Sessa battled defensively all day long and got to every loose ball frustrating the opponent the entire game.

Tewksbury 6A 20, Westford 6A 19

The Tewksbury Girls’ 6A travel team stretched their winning streak to four games with an impressive 20-19 victory over Westford on Saturday night at the Ryan School. The win puts the Redmen into a virtual tie for 4 place with a record of 8-5 in a very difficult “A” division of the River Valley League. The 8^th win of the season is also one more victory than this team recorded last year as 5^th graders, and they still have another month to improve on that record. The leading scorer, and biggest sparkplug, for Tewksbury was Marissa Doherty with 6 points. She single handedly kept the Redmen in the game during the first half, scoring all 6 of her points as the girls trailed 9-8 at intermission. Katie Garcia came off of the bench to score 4 points and to play her signature brand of aggressive defense. Francesca Cocca had 4 huge points late in the 2^nd half to help Tewksbury take the lead. Emily Sessa fought through some early foul trouble to contribute 3 points. Adrianna Favreau played an all around great game, and chipped in with 2 points. Sara Catanzano scored just 1 point, but it happened to be a free throw with less than a minute remaining and proved to be the difference in the game. The interior defense played by Tewksbury was tremendous. Alexis Brinklow, Colleen MacNeil, and Kayla Von Kahle controlled the paint, grabbed rebounds, and forced Westford to try to score from the perimeter. Julia Kelly played twice as big as her size, and applied fantastic defensive pressure to any Westford player with the ball. Victoria Mirabito continued her strong play, and came up with many steals in the zone press. Samantha Mercurio did not score, but played a solid game at point guard continued to get the team into their offense. Once again, a great overall game by a terrific group of girls.

Tewksbury 36 Reading 29

On Sunday, in a very warm Middle School the 6B travel team over came a 16 point deficit to capture a much needed win and a boost in energy. The game started off slow but Reading got things started and kept it rolling in the first half as Tewksbury was a little rusty due to no practices thanks to Mother Nature. Down 20-9 at the half the Redmen knew they had a lot of work to do if they were going to make this a game so they started the second half armed with a full court press. Tewksbury caught Reading off guard and the Redmen were able to capitalize on their mistakes. For every rebound that Maddy Wescott (13 points) and Sam Alman (11 points) pulled down Sam Surowiec (2 points), Shaylee Puleo, and Paige McGaffigan (2 points) had a steal. The Wynn began to fill up with spectators for the next game and the loud crowed cheered the Redmen on as they went on a roll keeping Reading to just 9 points in the second half. With the score tied 28-28 with 4 minutes to play Reading called a time out trying to regroup to break the full court press but nothing seemed to work and with another Surowiec steal the Redmen went up 30-28. While only half the team scored, it was the whole team that came together to come up with big plays. Lizzie Markwarth (6 points) was integral in trapping in the backcourt, Sarah Larsen (2 points) had a key steal on an inbound play, Nikki Lucia had several huge rebounds, and Nicole Cobuccio kept the pressure on the Reading guards. The key to this victory, besides the full court press, was that Tewksbury took good care of the ball. The turnovers were kept to a minimum and Surowiec and McGaffigan were able to feed the ball inside to Alman and Wescott. Wescott had her usual solid game with multiples steals and rebounds and Alman had her best game of the season. The game remained close but Tewksbury remained calm as Markwarth, McGaffigan, Surowiec, Alman, and Wescott shut Reading down and rolled away with a 36-29.