This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Sports

Lady Sachems One Win Away From Postseason

The Winchester girl's basketball team defeated Melrose, 55-39.

With Tuesday's win over Melrose - a 55-39 victory - Winchester now needs one win in its last three regular season games to book a spot in the sectionals.

The Melrose girls basketball team is not so lucky as they fare now on the brink of elimination from postseason play.

The Lady Raiders (4-9) must win six of their last seven games if they hope to reach tournament. The task at hand as clear, and the message from their coach is simple.

Find out what's happening in Winchesterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“Just keep plugging away,” Melrose head coach Rob Ferrante said. “There’s not much more I can say ... just keep plugging away, and hopefully things will turn in our favor. You know, you get a couple of breaks, you get on a hot streak ...”

The Lady Sachems (9-8) were led by a pair of senior captains, who both turned in outstanding performances on both ends of the floor. Forward Samantha Mangano--committed to play at the University of New Haven next year--scored 17 points, while guard Shelby Santini, a University of Southern New Hampshire recruit, dropped 16 of her own.

Find out what's happening in Winchesterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“I’m very fortunate to have two players of the caliber and character of Shelby and Sam,” Winchester head coach Jason Cacciapuoti said. “They’re intelligent basketball players, they understand how to play the game ... if we run a set and a team takes us out of it, they both know how to make an adjustment on the fly and still get us something out of it.”

Melrose was paced by junior captains McGee and Limone, who scored 10 and 9 points respectively, with Limone’s coming all by way of the three-pointer.

The Lady Raiders shot the ball well from the perimeter early on, knocking down a pair of threes in each of the first two frames, and after the two squads traded 13 point first periods, they took a deserved 26-20 lead into the locker room at the break. 

“That helped us, knocking down some threes,” Ferrante said. “The outside shots helped give us the lead in the first half.”

The second half would prove to be a different animal altogether.

Limone and McGee, who had combined for 19 of the Lady Raiders’ 26 first half points, were both held scoreless in the second half, and as a result, the Melrose offense was limited to just 13 second half points. Meanwhile, the Lady Sachems shifted up a gear and dropped 35 points over the final two frames, putting distance between themselves and their league rivals with a 23-point third quarter.

“I felt (the Melrose) kids did a nice job of knocking down open shots in the first half,” Cacciapuoti said. “We made a concerted effort to get out to the shooters and try to run them off the line and have a hand in their face when they shoot.”

Winchester’s defense came alive in the second half, and the extra intensity was something the Lady Raiders weren’t able to deal with.

“We just couldn’t do anything right (in the second half),” Ferrante said. “They turned up the intensity and we had no answer for it.

“Hopefully, we can take that 16 minutes from the first half, and turn it into 32 minutes.”

The Lady Raiders return to the court tomorrow at Belmont in a makeup game from earlier in the year, while Winchester will try and cement a place in the postseason at home on Friday against Watertown.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?