By Meghan Foley
Hometown Weekly Sports Reporter
On Tuesday, December 9th, girls’ varsity basketball took on the Norwood Mustangs in a scrimmage before their regular season began that Thursday.
Last year, the Rockets had a regular season record of 11–9 and qualified for the MIAA playoffs seeded 13th. In the first round, they knocked out the Andover Golden Warriors (20th) 52–48 and made it to the final 16 where they were beaten by 4th-seeded Braintree 47–52. Braintree lost in the following round to 1st-seeded Wachusett, who won the championship. The Rockets will get a chance for revenge against Braintree this evening on the road at 6:30 and will meet for a second time at home on February 6th.
This will be the first season for the Rockets’ new coach, Lindsay Miller. Miller is the all-time leading goal scorer at Westwood High where her team won two state championships. Among other accolades, she earned the title of All-Ivy player twice while at Harvard before playing professionally in Waterford City, Ireland. Before Needham, Miller spent five seasons as an Assistant Coach and Recruiting Coordinator at Harvard, then two seasons as the Head Coach at the Rivers School. Currently, she runs the Hallion Hoop Academy and is a therapist specializing in counseling athletes.
Hired to be the Rockets' Varsity Head Coach just in October, Lyndsay Miller said it’s been “hitting the ground running.” She continued, “It’s been amazing, it’s a great group, everyone really wants to work and learn … it’s been great to get on the same page as everyone and get to know them.”
Last year, Norwood was 15–6, but did not play Needham. The scrimmage was pretty evenly-matched, and seemed to feature an emphasis on passing by the Rockets.
In the second quarter, senior Aislin Flaherty chased down a Norwood player on a breakaway and impressively managed to make a clean block. When the quarter was coming to an end, Captain Dani Deroian wrestled the ball from a Mustang and passed it to fellow captain Eva Andrews who put in a layup with 9 seconds left in the half. Junior Lacey Williams had two great steals, the first of which she took up the court for a layup, and the second of which resulted in possession for Needham.
After the game, Coach Miller said: “They’re just picking up so much so quickly … I think they played hard and they played with a lot of courage, so I like how they competed, Norwood’s a really good team.”
When I asked her if there were any specific goals she had for the team this season, she answered, “You know, we’re gonna stay away from hard-line goals this year, we’re gonna really focus on our process, we wanna have championship habits every day, we really wanna be great and make each other better in our practices and play Needham basketball, not so much worry about scores and just really worry about how we feel together and how hard we work.”
Last Thursday, they played their first regular season game against Weymouth, winning 72–35. Coach Miller highlighted the role of the Rockets defense and provided these statistics from the game: Captain Hannah Levine earned 17 points, 8 assists, 6 steals, and 5 boards. Fellow captain Eva Andrews scored 10 points with 11 boards, while Aislin Flaherty got 13 points and 8 boards, and Lacey Williams had 11 points with 5 steals.
This evening at 6:30, the Rockets will be at Braintree High to play the Wamps in a rematch after their three very close games last year, losing 32–36, 46–48, and 47–52. Then on Tuesday at 6:30, they’ll face Walpole at home. Last year, Walpole won their first matchup 34–27 and Needham won the second 58–54.
The Rockets’ full schedule can be found at: www.arbiterlive.com.
