Mustang Girls Prep for a Tough Season

The Norwood High School girls basketball team saw their first taste of action Thursday night when they took on Canton High School in a scrimmage.

This season the Mustangs are looking to avenge their first round MIAA Tournament loss to Scituate last year. Second-year coach Brian Meringer said it will be difficult to improve on last year's record of 11-8 with the graduation of two six-foot players on the front line. Both are now playing college basketball, while this year's team will be turning to senior co-captains Katie Johnson and Justine Ryan.

Ryan was a leading scorer in the Canton scrimmage and is the Mustangs most skilled player on the floor. Meringer said she will be playing numerous positions on the floor this season with the team's lack of experience and height in the middle.

"We will be a lot different from last year," Ryan said after the game. "This year will be run, run, run."  Last year the Mustangs used a half court game to exploit smaller teams.

In the scrimmage Thursday, Norwood started slowly. They gave up some early turnovers as Canton opened in a zone defense.

However it wasn't long before the Mustangs settled down and started to hit the open three-point shots with the space created by their motion offense.

"We run a motion offense similar to UMass with four on the outside and one in the box," Coach Meringer said after the game.

The coach is a father of three daughters and certainly understands the dynamics of coaching a young and inexperienced team.

"Tonight's game we didn't worry so much about the score," said the coach, who utilized several timeouts in the first half to teach the offense and get his girls in the right positions.

The Mustangs began to light up the scoreboard late in the first half by hitting some well-executed three pointers.

No one was more effective than underclassman Jesse Gorman, who played herself on to the team Thursday by hitting two threes from the perimeter.

The Mustangs led at halftime, 32-26 thanks to Gorman's shooting and some great ball movement by guard Casey Duchaime.

The second half was a different story. Olivia Murphy from Canton continued to dominant the inside, scoring at will over the Mustang team, despite a promising showing from center Christina Hart. In the end the underclassman lefty couldn't keep Murphy off the boards.

A first-half injury to Hamet Kiwanuka left the team even more vulnerable in the game to both Murphy and Canton point guard Lona Pittsania.

Norwood's Leah Murphy, Sarah Eckhart and Megan O'Connor all had a strong showing and played valuable minutes in the scrimmage.

"We would love to make the tournament, but we have to win our non-conference games especially against Milton," said Ryan, who single-handedly brought the Mustangs back to a lead with some well-played baskets, one on a break away layup. She added another with 2:07 left in the third to extend the lead to 40-37.

The lead was further extended throughout the third to 48-41. However, then Canton's Murphy took over, adding several jump-shots in the paint and overtaking the Mustang lead.

Ryan responded to close the gap and tie the score at 56, but a layup by Canton with four seconds left sealed the deal and Canton went on to win 63-59.

"We got to scramble, shoot threes and get layups," the coach said. "It was a good evaluation on what is working defensively."

The girls' first official game is next Friday at home against Newton.

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