Lexington Beats Melrose, Takes Step Closer to Postseason

The girls’ basketball team took a crucial step toward securing a postseason berth with a 55-46 victory over Middlesex League foe Melrose High School at home on Friday night.

At this point in the season, every victory is crucial for the Minutemen (8-9), as just three games remain on the regular-season schedule. Lexington must now win two of those games to land a spot in the MIAA North Division 1 sectional tournament, according to coach Steve Solly’s calculations.

“We know exactly what we need to do,” Solly said. “Of the games left, we have to win two of them.”

The Minutemen have games remaining against Watertown High School at home on Sunday, followed by a pair of road games at Belmont High School on Tuesday and Burlington High School on Friday night.

Though it won’t be easy, Solly said the Minutemen are encouraged by the fact that they control their playoff fate.

“It is nice to control that,” he said “And we’ll try to take a micro version of (the remaining games), and say, ‘Let’s go win a quarter, or let’s go win a half or half of a quarter.’”

Lexington played like a playoff team to start Friday night’s game, which was also senior night, against the Red Raiders. Still riding high from honoring the team’s seven seniors (including its manager), the Minutemen scored the game’s first 13 points and led 19-7 when the first 8 minutes expired.

Sophomore Kristyn Kajko provided the spark from the opening tip, scoring nine of her game-high 20 points in the opening period. She sank three field goals, including a 3-pointer, and added two foul shots.

Kajko pushed Lexington’s early lead to 9-0 with a rebound and put-back 2:16 in. Senior tri-captain Amanda Bouchard (nine points) made it 13-0 a minute later with a close bucket.

Melrose failed to crack the scoreboard until more than half the quarter had expired. Sophomore Brooke Bell ended the drought, and Lexington’s 13-0 run, with a layup.

“Yeah, we came out scorching hot,” Solly said “I was pleased. It was a really good first quarter.

“It was senior night and I think they were hungry. They knew they needed this game as we still have the potential to make the (sectional tournament). So, I think knowing that, we were at home, they came fired up to play.”

The first served as a prime example of how one quarter can affect an entire game. Lexington and Melrose played neck-and-neck through the next two quarters, matching each other with 21-points apiece – 12 points apiece in the second quarter and nine each in the third.

But after falling behind by double-digits in the first quarter, the Red Raiders needed to do more than just match Lexington. They accomplished that to start the fourth quarter, thanks to some hot shooting.

Junior tri-captain Lia Limone (tied team-high eight points) sank two 3-pointers in the fourth, as Melrose put up 20 points to nearly match their total in the first three quarter. Bell (eight points) added a pair of field goals.

That helped the Red Raiders climb to within six points at 48-42 with a little more than 2 minutes remaining. It was as close as they had been since trailing 6-0 in the first quarter.

“We were just matching Lexington’s intensity as the game progressed,” Melrose coach Robert Ferrante said. “We didn’t do that at the beginning of the game, but as the game moved along we were kind of hanging around and realized that if we picked up the intensity on both ends we’d have a chance to get back in the game.”

While Melrose’s offense came to life, its defense continued to struggle to contain the Minutemen, especially junior point guard Cat Costello. She was held to two points in the first quarter, but started attacking the basket and getting to the free throw line after halftime.

In fact, eight of Costello’s 14 points came at the line. She was 4-of-8 at the line in fourth quarter.

That proved enough for the Minutemen to hold on and get that much closer to playing deep into February.

“There were a lot more free throws and they started hitting some 3s, so that kind of kept them around and changed the dynamic (of the game),” Solly said of the fourth quarter, in which Melrose outscored Lexington by six points. “So, that’s what that change was, tempo.”