The Whaler girls basketball team lost to the Sandwich Blue Knights Wednesday night 67-38, but head coach Rafael Osona was proud of his team’s effort.
“It is a tough score when you look at it on paper but what it doesn’t show is our composure for a majority of the game and our ability to be patient on offense,” he said. “We scored inside and outside. Overall I am really happy with how we played. They played hard and they executed.”
“Once we get to the point where we aren’t making those mental mistakes that lead to easy buckets and transitions for the other team, we will be a tough team to beat.”
The Whalers jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead in the game, but the Blue Knights went on to outscore Nantucket 41-15 after that to take a 41-21 lead into halftime. Blue Knight’s guard Sierra Brigham led the way for Sandwich with 15 first half points behind excellent three-point shooting.
“We knew what Sierra was capable of,” Osona said. “She is a great player. You just hope she has an off night. We did a better job defending her in the second half.”
Maclaine Willett shined for Nantucket and finished with a team-high 16 points. She also had four rebounds. Tamoy Marner had a strong defensive game and showed an ability to score from anywhere on the court. She scored 10 points and had 8 rebounds.
“Sandwich is a very strong program and both of those girls played great,” Osona said. “Tamoy is a tough matchup for opponents when she hits the outside shot and Maclaine has been great for us.”
Nantucket was able to trim the Blue Knights lead to 14 midway through the third quarter behind the efforts of Willett and Marner. But Sandwich would end up pulling away in the final quarter.
Point guard Ciara Barnett played stingy defense and was aggressive attacking the rim all night, finishing with two points, four rebounds, seven assists, and three steals. Caroline Correia chipped in nine points for Nantucket and had a strong offensive day as well.
Brigham finished with 18 points for Sandwich. Blue Knight’s center Madison Lawrence also had 18 points and made life difficult for the Whalers in the paint. Guard Aubrie Schwager had 14 points and led an aggressive Blue Knight’s press all night, finishing with over 10 steals. Avery Cobban had 12 points for Sandwich.
The Whalers will look to get back in the win column when they host Monomoy on Friday at 5 p.m.
