Lexington Girls' Basketball Team Ousted From MIAA Tourney by Lawrence

It was a tough loss, a very tough loss for the No. 15 girls’ basketball team Monday night. The Minutemen fell 57-46 to No. 18 Lawrence High School in the Preliminary Round of the MIAA North Division 1 sectional tournament.

 “Tough loss,” LHS coach Steve Solly said.

The Minutemen's tournament run comes to a close with the loss, and their season ends with a 11-10 record.

“I told them that they should be disappointed with the loss, and that’s okay," Solly said. "But in a lot of ways they should be very proud of the season that they had; in particular the seniors."

Solly said the team's senior leadership was strong, and created an atmosphere for players to compete and be their best every day. That team dynamic led the Minutemen all season. 

“There was never a pecking order,” Solly said. “The seniors brought kids along and everyone bought into it and that is the moment that they should be focusing on, is the prize of the season. Obviously, be disappointed because they don’t want the season to end and it ended here, and I think the finality of that for the seniors, it hit them tonight."

The seniors set an example for the younger players, who will know what it takes to reach the tournament next year, Solly said.

Last night, Lexington led for the majority of the game. The Minutemen were ahead by eight points at 40-32 roughly 30 seconds into the start of the final quarter, but just three minutes later, Lawrence came back from its deficit to tie the game 44.

“Several things happened,” Solly said. “(Lawrence) got to the foul line a ton. We were kind of foolish on defense at certain times and we’re playing that game where they’re making a couple of foul shots, we’re coming down the other end, and we’re not converting; we’re not scoring. And then (Lawrence is) coming down and either scoring or getting to the line and making foul shots.

“They were able to take advantage of opportunities and we all of a sudden had a drought where we didn’t score – we only ended up scoring six points in the fourth quarter – that’s not us. You look at the (third), we had a 20-point third quarter. We lost a little bit of consistency and a little bit of rhythm. I think the defense had something to do with that and their pressure had something to do with that.”

Lawrence senior guard Ashleigh Greer (22 points) fouled at 4:10, giving Lexington the ball. Lexington sophomore Kristen Kajko (game-high 23 points) passed the ball around the court before it made it back to her. But the Minutemen turned it over, and Lawrence sank a 3-pointer on the ensuing play, going ahead 47-44.

Lawrence hit another basket, putting them up 49-44, but Lawrence junior Tiffany Roman fouled LHS senior captain Kelsey Fenn with 2:13 left, and Fenn went 1-for-2 from the line.

At 1:56, Greer hit a 3, pushing Lawrence’s lead to 52-45. At 1:33, a double foul was called on Fenn and Roman. And with just 1:17 remaining, Fenn reached the five-foul limit after fouling Roman.

An emotional Fenn received a standing ovation as she walked to the bench.

With just over a minute left, Lawrence's Roman and junior Anjulisa Rhodes made 2-of-4 foul shots. Lexington was now trailing by nine, and Kajko added one point for the Minutemen, banking a foul shot.

“(Kajko) left her heart out there,” Solly said. “I’m proud of her.”

With 37.8 seconds remaining, down 55-46, Lexington nabbed possession on a jump ball, but missed two 3-point attempts. Then Lawrence senior Janina Santiago added two points, increasing her team’s lead to 57-46.

Lexington wasn’t able to score after that, and Lawrence held the ball down court until the buzzer sounded.

“The toughest thing tonight was just getting back on track after they made a little run,” Solly said. “Lawrence would make a run, they’d score four or five baskets and we couldn’t really always get back on track.

“And we’re such a rhythm team; we couldn’t get back into our rhythm for whatever reason. We’re either on, on, on, or we had these big lulls. So it was just us being consistent; it was all over the place.”

In the first, Fenn put Lexington on the board with a foul shot at the 7-minute marker.

The Minutemen did struggle in the paint early on, especially Kajko, but Fenn helped the team, making 3-of-4 foul shots, and junior Allie Forlenza assisted junior captain Cat Costello’s basket that put the Minutemen up 8-4.

Lexington was winning 10-5 at the end of the first, with three fouls to Lawrence’s four.

The Minutemen were ahead 15-5 at 5:50 in the second when Kajko threw a pass to senior captain Amanda Bouchard (six points) for a layup. But Lawrence fought back, trailing just 17-13 after a few buckets and two foul shots from sophomore Angelice Gonzalez.

Lexington was up 20-17 at the half. The Minutemen had seven fouls to Lawrence’s 10.

Costello opened the third quarter with a basket after grabbing her own rebound from a missed 3 from the left wing. Not to be outdone, Greer nailed a 3 for Lawrence. But then Lexington went on a nine-point scoring run, leading 29-20. The Minutemen finished the third quarter up 10 points, 40-30, with six fouls. Lawrence had three.

But the fourth is where Lexington slowed down its scoring and Lawrence capitalized.

Gonzalez was fouled by Kajko at 7:27 and again at 6:29, adding three points for Lawrence. Greer then made back-to-back buckets, first dribbling up court at 6:06 and then tipping Hoffman’s pass for the score, closing Lexington’s lead to 42-37.

At 5:33, Santiago made it a one-possession game after making two foul shots, with Lexington up 43-41. And at 4:46, Lawrence took the lead after banking a 3 from the right wing.

Lexington wasn’t able to catch up and ultimately lost.

“I think everyone in the tournament game is uptight for the first five minutes, both teams,” Solly said. “But we had a real good vacation week of working on things.”

Preparing for the game, Solly said, “We had some scouting reports on them and we knew Greer is a good player and (Gonzalez) the point guard is a good player and we knew what they brought. So we just tried to simulate that in practice.

“I’m proud of the way the girls finished the game,” Solly continued. “Playing hard. They didn’t just quit. They played all the way to the buzzer.”

Download the movie

Download the movie

Download the movie

Download the movie