The Big Green fought long and hard to achieve a 38-35 victory over perennial basketball powerhouse Andover on Saturday. Though high school girls’ basketball games only contain 32 minutes of regulation time, this game lasted two hours! The squad stayed focused and determined throughout the game, not to mention tenacious.
Deerfield shooting was cold as ice to start out, with shots from ninth graders Vera Menafee, Jane Mallach, and Samara Cummings all failing to fall. Though Andover’s excellent shooters opened up a quick lead and they were the first team of the season to play a man offense against Deerfield, the Big Green quickly moved to a pass-and-cut offense and fearlessly put pressure on Andover’s highly athletic team throughout the game. Hanna Deringer ’20 opened the scoring off a fiery steal, Cummings’ shot fell, and Lindsay Cureton ’17 demonstrated her usual beautiful pull away and shoot move to score a 3-pointer, the likes of which are rarely seen in the West Gym. Cureton scored the next two points as well off a smart layup. Molly Fisher ’20 was unstoppable in her drive to the basket as well, and Shuman crushed one of the several key buckets she would score that day off a beautiful pass from Whitney Vogt ’20. Mallach next put away a three-pointer as though it was no big deal, and Da Costa powered through a strong Andover defense for a sweet layup to close out the half.
At the half, it seemed like Andover’s game, but it turned out that Deerfield was not ready to say die. Cureton somehow made a one-in-a-million shot from behind the basket deep in Andover’s territory, Menafee and Almonacy scored and then Shuman scored two in a row. Mallach hit a cool 3-pointer to tie the game, and then it was ON! The Big Green and Big Blue traded scoring and neither team held more than a four-point lead over the other throughout the rest of regulation time. Miraculously, Deerfield hung on through the stop-and-start game, as both teams used up all of their timeouts and went to the foul line repeatedly. In the words of play-by-play reporter and co-manager Molly Persons ’19, “My heart is pounding, this is so stressful.” Luckily, Deerfield figured out how to hang on to the ball through the last twelve seconds, and when the final horn sounded, it was a home victory by three points (the same margin by which Deerfield lost to Taft and beat Exeter).
With a 5-1 record and a game of beautiful basketball against a tough and talented team under their belt, the women of JV basketball are ready to train hard so they can take home a road win after a long trip to Hotchkiss on Saturday. Stay tuned for the writeup!
Reporting contributed by manager Molly Persons ’19