Girls’ Basketball Struggles to Make Their Shots at E/a, But Looks Forward to a Deep Playoff Run

Following an OT boys’ hockey and an OT boys’ basketball game, students walking into the gym to root for Big Red’s girls’ basketball no doubt had great expectations.Indeed, no one expected a 40-36 loss. But Big Blue immediately took the lead and was up eleven to six with ten and a half minutes remaining in the first half.The girls’ performance was not up to par with their previous games. In basketball there is the saying, “Live by the three, die by the three.” That mantra certainly rang true for the team on Saturday night.Lower Michaela Streep realized that. “We’re a shooting team, she said. “That’s one of our biggest strengths, so it really hurt us that none of the shots were dropping.”A simple solution would have been to try out different methods of scoring. Despite being told by Coach Griffith to cut to the middle, they continued to attempt to make jump shots. If the players weren’t feeling their jump shots, it would not have been likely to work given more chances.Options could have been the two-man game or posting players up down low. Senior center Susannah Gray had a sizable advantage over her defender, but was continually up at the free throw line helping facilitate the ball around the perimeter. Not once did she take the ball, turn around to face the basket, pump fake and drive to the rim for an easy two.When lower Peace Kabari did get the ball in the low post she either put up a good shot or got fouled for two free throws. Why not post her up?On the other hand, the team deserves credit for trying to use their speed and agility to their advantage to cut to the basket—but those plays often resulted in turnovers or bad, challenged shots.One fan even shouted repeatedly throughout the game, “Follow your shots!” The team rarely went for an offensive board, but in moments they did succeed, shooting got higher quality points.In a study done by MIT students, it was found that sending extra rebounders on the offense led to an extra four points per game on average. An extra four points would have sent the game to overtime.Fortunately for Exeter, their defense was playing well and limited Andover to only 17 first half points. They were also able to end the half on a 7-0 run to go into halftime trailing 17-13. They got those seven points off of two turnovers forced by their press and also from a rare three pointer.Overall, the first half left fervid fans with a taste of disappointment.The officiating didn’t help with the flow of the game either. They made no calls when players were hip-checked or hacked on the way up to the hoop and tumbled onto the court, the ball taken charge by the other team.“We let the refs get in our heads,” senior guard Yvonne Dean-Bailey said.The second half was better for the team as they were able to tie the game up at 32 with under five minutes remaining. After having their lead eliminated, the Big Blue then proceeded to go on a 8-4 run to close out the game and seal the win at home.Needless to say, Exeter was disappointed with its performance. The team was emotional, both angry and sad, but were also optimistic knowing that their season wasn’t over yet.“The loss taught us that winning in the playoffs is going to be harder than we thought. [It] keeps us modest,” senior captain Nicole Heavirland said.However, Exonians still maintain confidence in the team’s championship prospects. Any team looking to win a championship will have to go through Exeter’s team, the number one seed.The only reasons to doubt this team would be if they dwell on this last loss, having another poor shooting performance, or injuries to Gray (ankle) and upper Courtney Henrich (knee).When asked what the biggest obstacle to a title is, Dean-Bailey responded, “Ourselves. Everyone wants to be a hero, but in reality, if we want to win a championship, we have to play as a team.”Over the coming weeks, we will see if this team will be able to bring home a second consecutive basketball title to Exeter. Their run begins Friday with a game versus NMH—the winner of the Andover-NMH game on Wednesday. The game will be at home.Big Red defeated NMH earlier 68-60 in their first game of the year. Over three months have passed since then and the Hoggers have compiled a 15-4 record since that early season loss, including a 75-42 win at Andover two weeks ago.The team will have a tough game ahead of them and will need a great performance to advance in the playoffs.