The girls JV basketball squad notched another win in the crosstown rivalry against Bement on the Wednesday before winter break. Taking a total of 66 shots, grabbing 25 rebounds, and pulling off 17 steals, the Deerfield team was victorious and brought their season point total to nearly 100 points in just two games.
The game began with great play by the starting five, as Jane Mallach ’20 grabbed a pass meant for a Bement player, and Rachel Shuman ’17 put it away for the first basket. Next, Jada Howard ’19 nabbed the ball on defense and swished it for another two points. Mallach and fellow ninth graders Netanya Jimenez, Molly Fischer, and Vera Grace Menafee all put up a number of shots without any luck, until Fischer fearlessly took the outside J (as a certain Troy Bolton once famously recommended). Jimenez stole the ball and fed it again to Fischer, who was unlucky, but Menafee regained possession for the team. Deerfield began to rack up the score as Hanna Deringer ’20 came off the bench hot and fired off a crisp bounce pass to Jimenez, who scored immediately, as did Menafee soon after. Menafee easily put away a free throw, Mallach made another steal, and Fischer grabbed a Bement rebound and scored to finish out the first half.
The Big Green were relentless in the second half as well. Senior Annie Roberts and ninth-grader Whitney Vogt put together a nice cross-class collaboration, as Vogt grabbed Roberts’ rebounds and put the rock away to start off strong. Vogt, Howard, Deringer, Brett Hale ’18, Nicole da Costa ’19, Tarah Almonacy ’17, Samara Cummings ’20 and Liz Tarazi ’19 churned up the court, racking up rebounds, steals, shots, and baskets to bring the score all the way to 39 points and allowing only 6 baskets by Bement.
Overall, not only did the team execute offensively and put together an effective defense, but they played a sportsmanlike game. With an encouraging start to the season, the team will focus on nailing down plays and working hard on defense headed into Saturday’s home game against Worcester at 3 p.m. See you there!