Lincoln-Sudbury Girls' Basketball Team's Rally Falls short to Westford Academy

The Lincoln-Sudbury girls' basketball team had one play, 13 seconds and a full play-clock to work with.

Unfortunately it wasn't enough.

After coming back from an 11-point deficit on Tuesday, L-S was unable to overtake Westford Academy and fell at home, 46-44.

"It was a tough one and we put ourselves in the position to win," said L-S coach Liza Feldman. "The first quarter killed us. We came from behind and were playing from behind the entire game."

The Warriors' (2-1, 1-1 DCL) first attempt came on a throw-in to sophomore Mandy Sifferlen while down 45-44 with 13 seconds on the clock. Standing in the post, the 6-foot sophomore faked a right-side pass to senior teammate Ali Murray and turned back to hit junior teammate Meghan Sanford driving opposite side.

Sanford bodied her defender on a deep layup, but was blocked out of bounds without drawing a foul.

"We were looking to attack the basket and try to get a call," said Feldman. "I do not think that necessarily went our way, but that is not the reason we lost."

With the ball back and 5.7 seconds on the clock, L-S managed to get the ball to Sanford in the corner of the court. Double-teamed and cornered, the junior attempted to catch fellow junior Illiana Quadri under the basket, but Westford senior Shannon Millis read the pass and stole the ball.

"Basically I just told them to rush the ball," said Westford coach Russ Coward. "It was almost like a trap play. We decided, if they are going to beat us, they are going to have to make a good move."

After Grey Ghosts freshman Hannah Hackley hit one free thrown to leave the Warriors down two with three seconds. The Warriors got the ball to senior Katelyn Wright, but her last-second half-court shot was blocked.

"We practice really aggressively going after the ball," said Coward. "I think we had a couple bounces that went our way today."

Neither team scored in the first three minutes.

Once scoring, Westford (2-0, 2-0 DCL) went on a 9-point run for a 15-4 lead early in the second quarter. The Grey Ghosts' half-court press forced five steals in the final five minutes of the first quarter.

"We know they are deep and we wanted to run as much as possible, because we feel we are as deep as they are," said Coward. "If we could push the tempo, we were hoping they would get a little tired and their outside game would not be as effective."

A deep jumper by L-S senior Lindsey Jones helped mount a comeback from down 20-12 with two minutes left in the half. Layups by senior teammates Alex Quadri and Wright clipped their halftime deficit to two.

All three shots came off steals.

"Our game plan was to make a move early, try to get a little back, and apply pressure," said Feldman. "We know they are a younger team, with a little less experience; although they did not look it."

Throughout the second half, the Warriors would bring the game within one basket five times, but would only both tie and take the lead once.

"They just claw back and they are so tough from the half-court sets," said Coward.

"Westford did a better job capitalizing on the mistakes we made and we did not get it done capitalizing on their errors," said Feldman

Murray led all scorers with 13 points. Westford senior Rachel Secularist tallied 11 points, with seven coming in the first half.

Sifferlen had six blocked shots.

"We focused on getting back on transition, which we did pretty well with," said Feldman. "When I scouted Westford, I noticed they scored a lot of points off transition and I thought our defense did pretty well."

Lincoln-Sudbury will hope to bounce back when they travel to play undefeated Wellesley next week on Thursday.