Hornets Fall to Wilmington at Home

The girls' basketball team took on the Wilmington Wildcats on Wednesday night at home, and despite securing a one-point lead at the half, the Hornets went on to drop the contest, 50-43.

"[Wilmington] hit their open shots, and they hit their free throws," said North Reading coach Karla Sullivan. "We got some good looks, but unfortunately our shots didn't fall and we missed some free throws."

With the loss, North Reading's record drops to 8-7, while Wilmington improves to 10-6 on the season. The Wildcat victory secures the team's spot in the upcoming MIAA state tournament, while the Hornets are still in the hunt for a postseason berth. 

"It’s really exciting for the kids to get their 10th win, and making the state tournament," said Wilmington coach Jay Keane. "Every year we’ve made the tournament since I’ve been here, and that’s a credit to the girls because they've worked really hard." 

The two squads came out aggressive in the first half, battling to a 27-26 score in North Reading's favor going into the midway point. 

"I’m proud of how we played tonight," said Sullivan. "We came out ready to play, and we took it to them in the first quarter."

Wilmington's Emily Crannell opened up the third quarter by knocking down a 3-pointer, giving the Wildcats some momentum right from the get-go. Crannell proved unstoppable from beyond the arc, sinking three 3-pointers on the night and registering a staggering 15 points in the victory. 

Foul-shooting gave the Hornets a lot of trouble throughout the game, missing eight out of their 14 free-throw attempts. Despite their shooting woes, North Reading was only trailing by three points as the final eight minutes went up on the clock.

Another Crannell 3-pointer to open the final quarter put her team back up by six as the Wildcats attempted to take control in the final minutes. 

"We made a nice little [scoring] run at the end, and we ran a nice play for Emily, and she just keeps hitting that 3-pointer in the corner," Keane said.

With two minutes remaining, a 3-pointer by Wilmington's Cailin O'Flaherty widened the scoring gap to nine with little time left for North Reading to recover. 

Despite the loss, junior guard Lauren Herbert had a strong outing, registering 18 points for her team. North Reading center Kirsten Morrison also had a good night in the paint, locking in 13 points of her own. 

Center Maggie Brown had a good night for the Wildcats with 14 points, while Meaghan Stinson also shot well, registering 11. 

"North Reading is a very good program," Keane said." They are tough. Their guard Lauren Hebert is an outstanding player. Morrison is also really tough to defend, but I thought we did a good job helping out and I knew we wouldn’t stop her completely, it was just a matter of containing her."

Next up, the Hornets will take on Ipswich on the road on Friday at 6:30 p.m. North Reading lost to the Pioneers during the season-opener, but Sullivan thinks her team will be more ready to compete this time around.

"At the beginning of the season, we had a lot of girls who had no varsity experience, and that was their first varsity game," she said. "We made a lot of mistakes due to inexperience, but we still played pretty well, and I think our experience will help us win on Friday."