By Avonlea Cummings
Hometown Weekly Sports Reporter
In a hard-fought contest on Sunday at the Tsongas Center in Lowell, the top-seeded Medfield High School girls' basketball team secured the Division II state championship with a 48-42 victory over sixth-seeded Worcester South. It required a stellar team effort for Medfield to emerge victorious. Freshman Naya Annigeri led the charge with 16 points, while senior Mary Palladino contributed crucial three-pointers off the bench to clinch the win in the second half. This marks Medfield's first state championship in girls' basketball since 2017.
At tipoff, MedBall’s starting lineup of Annie Stanton, Sadie Cumming, Tess Baacke, Izzy Kittredge, and Naya Annigeri applied relentless defensive pressure, disrupting Worcester South's offense. Senior captain Sadie Cumming set the tone early with a three-pointer. Throughout the game, Medfield maintained possession and controlled the scoreboard, taking a 16-7 lead in the first quarter.
In the second half, Worcester South intensified their efforts to narrow Medfield's lead. However, Naya Annigeri's two three-pointers, along with Palladino's contribution, kept Medfield ahead, leading 43-32 by the end of the third quarter. Despite Worcester South's defensive pressure in the fourth quarter, Medfield managed to secure rebounds and control the clock. Annigeri's final free throw sealed the 48-42 victory as the final buzzer sounded, sparking jubilant celebrations among Medfield fans.
Head coach Mark Nickerson expressed his pride in the team's hard work and dedication, emphasizing their relentless effort throughout the game. He commended Worcester South for their competitiveness and urged the Medfield players to maintain their focus and intensity.
“Great game, that was a really great team to play. They were really aggressive, and I thought we played great defense to hold that team to what we held them to with 42 points in the end. I thought we had some nice shots, and we rebounded well, and we handled the pressure okay in the end, we found our composure in the third, which was good; we needed to,” reflected Nickerson.
Coach Nickerson talked about senior Mary Palladino’s performance during the game and reflected on how her presence on the court was a huge part of the team’s success. "Mary Palladino had a huge game; she’s been doing that intermittently for us throughout the season. She’s had some big minutes off the bench for us but nothing bigger than today, she played cool, and calm, had some big shots, and played a lot of rebounds. You could argue that she was the most important player for us tonight,” said Nickerson.
“I’m shocked, it doesn’t seem real, and I mean that honestly not as a cliché. It is a true testament to their hard work, the way the team developed all year, we got a lot of young players, but we have a lot of great senior leadership. Those seniors really helped bring the underclassmen along to the point where they deferred to them at points when they needed to, and when they took over control when they needed to, I couldn’t be prouder of the group and the way they worked this year and just how far they played,” said Nickerson.
