Reading Rolls Past Lady Warriors

Sometimes, all you can do is grin and bear it. 

That was the situation facing the Wakefield girls basketball team yesterday, as they fell 59-32 at the hands of Middlesex League table-toppers Reading at Walter E. Hawkes Field House in a league battle between two teams representing opposite ends of the success spectrum this season.

The Lady Rockets (18-1) began the campaign by reeling off an impressive 16-game winning streak, suffering their first loss Feb. 11 against Woburn, while the Lady Warriors have had some rough sledding this winter, struggling to a  4-15 overall mark. Reading will head into the tournament with its collective eye on a run through the Div. 2 North Sectionals, while Wakefield will be looking towards next season, when they will return all but four players from their current roster.

Reading saw three players hit double figures in scoring, while Wakefield’s efforts on the offensive end failed to yield a single double-digit point total. Senior captain Carlene Kluge paced the Lady Rockets with 23 points, while sophomores Morgan O’Brien and Olivia Healy dropped 17 and 10 respectively. Wakefield was led by juniors Ashley Carney (nine points) and Abby McGrath (six points).

Despite holding Wakefield to a meager 32 points, Reading High head coach Kim Penney didn’t mince words when asked after the game if she was satisfied with her squad’s efforts on the night.

“No. Absolutely not,” she replied. “Our defense wasn’t on par with where it usually is ... we need to be more consistent on both ends of the floor.”

The result last night was status quo; Wakefield put together a strong performance, keeping things close early on, but in the end, the Lady Rockets propelled themselves to an easy win.

“I was really impressed with our first quarter,” said Wakefield head coach Meghan O’Connell. “It was one of the best quarters of basketball we have played all year. We came out strong.”

The Lady Warriors hung 14 points on the scoreboard during the opening stanza, and ended the frame trailing the No. 8 ranked team in the state--according to The Boston Globe--by a mere three points at 17-14. Carney netted seven of her nine points during the first quarter, as Wakefield appeared to be very much in the game.

That’s when the wheels fell off for the Lady Warriors.

While Reading continued to score with relative ease, the 14-point output of the first quarter represented the high-water mark for Wakefield’s offense, as it wasn't able to score more than eight points in any of the following frames.

“Our goal is not to let up more than eight points in a quarter,” said Penney. “We did that for the last three quarters.”

The Lady Rockets stretched their lead to 29-19 at the half, and never looked back.

“They’re a really good team,” said O’Connell of her team’s opponent. “Give them credit ... they play really good defense.”

Wakefield hosts Melrose at 5:30pm on Friday in their last game of the season.