The good news for Lynnfield’s girls basketball was it picked up its third win of the season to inch closer to .500. The bad news was, it dropped the next one to fall to 3-7 (2-5 Cape Ann League).
The team traveled up to Byfield on Friday to take on the Triton Vikings and struggled to score in a 40-30 loss.
The game had a promising start with Lynnfield jumping out to a 7-6 lead after the first quarter, but a three-point second quarter put the Pioneers in a 19-10 hole at the halftime break. The offensive woes spilled over into the third quarter. About three minutes in, the Pioneers trailed by 15, 27-12, but went on a 10-0 run to close out the quarter trailing, 27-22, with eight minutes to go in the game. Key baskets were delivered by freshman Olivia Braley and sophomore Hayden Valiton.
The momentum carried into the fourth quarter. With 3:10 to go, the Pioneers cut the deficit to just three at 33-30, but that was as good as it got.
“We came up on the short end of the stick tonight,” said coach Sue Breen. “We cut it to three points, but then had trouble the rest of the way.”
Hayden Valiton (4 rebounds, 3 blocks, 2 steals) and Olivia Braley scored a team-high eight points apiece.
“Olivia provided a great spark off the bench,” Breen said.
Freshman Chloe Grieves scored six points and snagged a team-high 12 rebounds. Senior captain Erika Pasquale scored three points and hauled down four rebounds. Sophomores Maeve Wertz (3 points), freshman Calleigh Caprio (2 points), and sophomore Faith Angelo (5 rebounds) also contributed.
Lynnfield 40
Manchester-Essex 32
Earlier in the week, the Pioneers took down Manchester-Essex by single digits.
“We had a good game tonight and got a lot of contributions from many players,” Breen said. “We defended our home court tonight. It got close when it was 35-32, but we scored enough to hold off the charge by a scrappy Manchester-Essex team.”
Both teams struggled to score in the first quarter, which ended with Lynnfield on top, 7-3. The Pioneers bumped the lead to 19-10 at the half and led, 28-20, after the third quarter.
Hayden Valiton scored a team-high 16 points. Grieves scored nine points and had 10-plus rebounds. Taylor Valiton (5 points) was also in double-figures in rebounds with 10. Angelo scored a season-high seven points.
Breen said both Jordan Calichman (2 points) and Wertz (point) had strong games defensively.
