By Avonlea Cummings
Hometown Weekly Sports Reporter
Bleachers were packed, and the student section was bright pink and full of energy as the Needham High gym on Friday, January 5th the Needham boys basketball team hosted the Braintree Wamps in league competition. The Rockets ultimately took the lead over Braintree and closed out the night winning 59-38.
As the first half tipped off, the Rockets were field up from the crowd's dynamic atmosphere, encouraging the boys to challenge the Wamps in the early competition. It was a thrilling match as the ball would travel down the court, and the Rockets were ready to take impressive baskets and layups. Braintree’s offensive efforts were quickly diminished by Needham as they took rebounds away left and right, tallying up several points on the scoreboard. Cheerleaders and fans cheered on Needham as they displayed excellent skills on the court, and upheld their lead throughout the half. Once the buzzer blasted into the air it was time for both teams to strategize their next moves for the second half, and Needham walked off the court with a 38-18 lead.
Needahm and Braintree rushed onto the court to start the second half of the competition, and both teams were eager for the evening’s win. However, the Rockets were relentless and had great depth within their bench, will players confident to take action on the court. Head coach Paul Liner swapped out the boys for fresh energy on the court to maintain the Rockets' significant lead, each player showcasing strong defense against Braintree snagging several rebounds. It was an electric night for Needham basketball as they capitalized and earned their huge league win 59-38, everyone in the stands went wild as the buzzer sounded signaling the end of the competition.
Head coach Paul Liner expressed his thoughts on the night’s competition, how the team works together, and their defensive work.
“Things didn’t go as great last week we lost to Xaverian which is a bigger team, so we were really focusing on defense this past week. We wanted to be more aggressive on defense, and have more communication back there, and I have to say it really showed tonight. It’s fun to have a team respond to four days of teaching and learning and do a great job defensively tonight was great to see. We’ve told the guys that they should be ready to play at any point in the game, we believe all 15 kids for us can play and do a great job in games. I thought there was so many kids who came into the game tonight who were ready to play, the kids play very well together and they fight for each other,” said Liner.
The Rockets will face North Andover High next Thursday, January 11th at Needham, tipoff is set for 6:30 PM.
