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Sports

Second-Half Surge Secures Westwood Senior Night Victory

Emily McGrail led the Westwood seniors to a 54-47 victory over Dover-Sherborn Tuesday night.

The Westwood varsity girls' basketball team picked up a much-needed 54-47 home victory Tuesday night against the Dover-Sherborn Raiders (5-14).

The Senior Night victory put Westwood (8-9) just two wins away from punching its ticket to the postseason tournament with three games remaining on the schedule.

Senior Night truly lived up to its name as all 10 of the Wolverine seniors saw playing time in the first quarter.

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“It’s just a special team,” said Westwood head coach Brianne Bognanno. “When you have 10 seniors, it shows you how much they enjoy being there with each other, especially since they’ve been playing together since they were young.”

Erin Young, who is still hampered by a foot injury and hasn’t seen action in weeks, was inserted into the starting lineup and hit a three-pointer on the team’s first possession before being rushed back to the sideline for medical reasons.

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D-S, who fell to the Wolverines by 31 points last month, came out with a new found intensity as they ignored all the hoopla off the court and jumped out to a 28-23 halftime lead.

“We were just trying to concentrate on the things that we do well,” said Dover-Sherborn head coach Heather Ernest. “It’s just a matter of reading what the defense gives you. I wanted them to attack the basket to penetrate and pitch and they did a great job of that in the first half and we really controlled the tempo of the game.”

Sophomore Abby Greene and senior Catherine Oglevee caught fire and put in 20 of the Raider’s 28 first-half points. Greene finished with 16 and Andrea Marx finished with eight.

The third quarter belonged however to Westwood senior Emily McGrail, who exploded for 16 points and two steals and put the team on her back amidst arguably the most pivotal comeback of the season.

“It was definitely the best quarter of basketball that Emily McGrail has played all year,” Bognano said. “It was all about intensity and she was the spark plug out there and got the entire team going.”

The Wolverines outscored the Raiders 22-6 in the frame and rounded out the quarter on a 12-0 run.

Senior Molly McLaughlin added four points and four rebounds in the quarter as part of her double-double performance, which included 16 points, 10 rebounds and six steals.

Westwood extended the lead all the way to 19 points midway through the fourth but the Raiders pulled out one more bag of tricks. They scored the final 12 points of the contest, including six from Ogelvee who finished with 13 and Ernest credited her team for its competitiveness.

“I thought we did a really good job not rolling over and playing dead when we got down,” she said. “We were still fighting to the very last second ticked off the clock and it shows we are finally playing as a team and will continue to work hard as long as there is time on the clock.”

McGrail added two more points to her total in the fourth quarter to lead the team with 18. Other Westwood seniors who scored were Rachel Berluti (4), Kelley Steeves (3), Erin Young (3), and Christa Demovellan (2).

Junior Keira Travers added six points and two steals off the bench and fellow junior Kate rich grabbed eight boards to go along with her two points and three assists. 

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