Lady Wildcats Face Waltham to Open Postseason

UPDATE: The Wilmington girls basketball game slated for Wednesday at 7 p.m. has been postponed until Thursday because the Waltham boys basketball was playing at the same time. Wilmington and Waltham will open the North Division 2 girls bracket in Wilmington at 7 p.m. on Thursday.

The road through the North Division 2 girls basketball bracket isn’t an easy one. Wilmington now knows where that road begins.

learned on Friday that they will host at least one postseason tilt and a maximum of two after they earned the No. 3 seed in the bracket.

Waltham, the lowest seed in the bracket with a 6-14 record, will visit Wilmington on Wednesday at 7 p.m. If the Wildcats can snag a victory, they’ll face either Gloucester or Marblehead in the second round.

Last week Keane said he thought the team may earn a bye, but that wasn’t the case. In the long run, it’s something he believe could help his charges.

“We’re glad to have a first round game,” said Keane. “A bye would have meant we had about two weeks off, which isn’t a good thing. We lost only one game at home all year, and it was a close game. The girls are confident at home and they’re really looking forward to it.”

As the third seed, the Wildcats have no chance at being forced to play a road game. If they win both of their potential home games, they’ll go straight to the North Division 2 semifinal, which is held on a neutral site.

Unbeaten Reading earned the No. 1 seed while Arlington Catholic finished just ahead of the Wildcats for the second seed and first round bye.

Keane aimed to keep this week as normal as usual. He organized scrimmages on Tuesday and Friday, the days the team usually plays its games. Players have also held normal practices, which Keane said were strong.

Throughout the week the team talked about not overlooking Waltham, which had to run off a winning streak just to finish second in its division and make the playoffs.

“Every night you’re in a battle and this is no different,” said Keane. “They’d love to steal this game from us, so we have to play well from the opening tip.”