Winchester Girl's Basketball Struggles Against Reading Defense

It was opening night of the 2010-2011 season at Reading Memorial High School and the Rockets had no problem taking care of the Sachems 48-18. 

(0-1) struggled all night against the Reading (1-0) defense, especially in the second half when the Sachems only scored two points in the second half.

"We played good solid defense," said Reading Coach Kim Penney. "We are very big overall and we lost a lot of small guards so we needed to adapt. We did not let them in our own paint.  We settled down in the second half by boxing out better. A lot of positives came out of this game."

It took awhile for both teams to adjust to the game, as the first half saw plenty of turnovers, but as Reading began to adjust and get more comfortable, it was able to pull away from . The Rockets took a five-point lead into halftime, 21-16. 

The Rockets were led by Olivia Healy who scored 10 points in the first half and 16 overall. She also added seven rebounds and three assists. Co-Captains Melissa DalPozzo and Carlene Kluge combined for 19 points, two assists, and three rebounds. But on the defensive side of the ball is where the Rockets really excelled on Tuesday night.

Sachems Coach, Jason Cacciapuoti, explained that his team just couldn't find a way to score  

"We did not execute offensively nor could we. We were forced to score versus their defensive sets. We never had any looks in transition. Reading forced us to do a lot of things we did not want to do, they are a great defensive team," said Cacciapuoti.

There was one bright spot for the Sachems as Shelby Santini tallied 10 points including two three-pointers while also adding four rebounds. 

Coach Cacciapuoti is not looking ahead to his next battle with the Stoneham Spartans just yet, he wants to fix the mistakes his team committed in the first game of the season.

"We will take it one day at a time and that begins by getting better at practice. We will learn and then move on," said Cacciapuoti.

The Rockets also outrebounded the Sachems 26-20, which led to layups on the other end of the floor something the Sachems were unable to generate.

Penney is expecting her team to mature throughout the year and while she expects the team to get better, Tuesday night was a good start.

"We need to find our roles, it is the first game of the year, but we did a very good job tonight," Penney said. "We were very strong with the ball, forced a lot of turnovers, had a great shot selection, and we did not get in foul trouble."