By Avonlea Cummings
Hometown Weekly Sports Reporter
Amidst the echoing cheers and dribbles, the Westwood court came alive Thursday, January 18th as the Wolverines boys’ basketball team hosted the Dover-Sherborn Raiders for an unforgettable Tri-Valley League competition of the season. With skills and determination, Westwood pressured the Raiders on the court ultimately leading them to win 51-34.
In the first half, the boys were electric on the court, both teams battled against one another looking for an offensive opening to shoot and begin tallying points on the scoreboard. The Wolverines pushed through the challenging defense of the Raiders and came up with 10 points to close the first period. However, D-S took a narrowing lead by one point ending the first quarter with 11 points on the board. After a quick discussion, the Westwood boys were ready to take over the court and protect their house. With lightning speed, the boys took on rebounds and passed the ball with ease, the Wolverines would take on another 12 more points gaining a lead over the Raiders at the end of the second half. As for Dover-Sherborn, the boys continued to dare the Wolverines’ defense in their offensive end of the net but were only able to snag seven points for the second quarter, bringing the halftime score to 23-18.
As the whistle blew to commence the third period, the Westwood boys sprang onto the court with confidence, the boys continued to be a wall of defense around the Raiders, denying any more chances to tally up enough points to surpass the Wolverines’ lead. The Raiders fought back looking for new ways to trouble the Wolverines’ defense, but were only able to mark up five points in the third. Westwood launched their shots from left to right making baskets often, leading them to gain ten more points in the third quarter.
The thrilling competition continued as the teams headed into the fourth quarter, and the Wolverines dug deep to secure their win for the night’s TVL competition. Making the fourth quarter their highest scoring quarter of the game, the Westwood boys polished off the night with 18 points added to their final score, giving the boys their win over Westwood 51- 34, this leaders them to a 9-1 record for the 2023-2024 season.
Head coach Ryan Douglass spoke about the game and shared insight on what could be leading to the success of the team this season “Defensively we did some nice things, offensively we threw a couple of things at us that we were ready for, but didn’t execute as well until the second half, things had started opening up a bit. We spoke about adjustments for our zone (in between halves), we were getting okay looks but just not the ones we really wanted. We focused on that, we picked up our intensity defensively which opened up some things for us. We are a very veteran group we had a lot of guys return from last year's team that went pretty far into the playoffs, and we are living off of that, we know what we need to do to get back there, and what style play is acceptable, and it starts with our practices, and they have been doing a good job of that,” said Douglass.
The boys will continue the season playing Bellingham High on Friday, January 26 at home. The tip-off is 6:30 PM.
