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By Robert Rosen
Hometown Weekly Staff
On Friday night the Wellesley boys’ basketball team traveled to Natick as part of a girl-boy doubleheader to take on the Red Hawks, dropping the game 54-45 in a game that could’ve gone either way until the last few minutes.
“I think the effort is something we want to be giving on a nightly basis,” coach Mike Reidy said after the game. “We’re looking for a combination of effort and performance. Natick got a few more loose balls and played better than we did.”
The Raiders shot poorly in the game against Natick (unofficially they were 15 of 60), and Reidy said it’s really hard to win a game when the team shoots like that, and that they’ve had a couple of games like that this season.
But shooting isn’t always a problem for Wellesley as there have been games where they’ve knocked down plenty of shots, and Reidy said it’s sometimes a matter of taking shots too quickly rather than the fact that they’re taking the shots.
Eight seniors graduated from last year’s team, but Reidy said that there is some experience back from last season and that players who didn’t have varsity experience last year gained valuable experience early on this season.
“It’s a terrific group of young men,” Reidy said. “In terms of their character and effort and often their resilience. We’ve had some really good comebacks in games.
“They approach every day in practice with the right demeanor and right kind of effort. I think their heads are in the right places.”
The Raiders have had some really good fourth quarters this season and have played exceptionally well at times. Situational basketball and defensive points per game have been consistent strengths of the team.
With the loss against Natick, the Raiders are now 4-6.
“We need contributions from everybody,” Reidy said. “Last game we had six players score between 6 and 13 points. No one person. We need everybody to play well."
“Tomorrow we’re going to get better. We’ll get in the gym and work hard.”
Robert Rosen can be contacted at news@hometownweekly.net or followed on Twitter @roberterosen.
