Girls Hoops Hopes To Build Off Last Year’s State Tournament Berth
David Creed •
The Nantucket girls basketball team won 12 games last winter after just five wins in their previous two seasons combined, and heading into the 2024-2025 campaign – the Whalers feel confident they can build off last year’s success.
“There are nine players returning so when you have that many coming back you do a little review, and then you start building again,” head coach Rafael Osona said. “You don’t have to start from scratch, which is nice.”
The Whalers will be led by seniors Maddie Lombardi, Alana Ludvigson, and Mani Taveras, as well as junior Marin Mooney and sophomore Madden Myers. All five contributed in a significant way last year.
“We have two freshmen too coming in who are really talented in Quinn Canty and Daraliz (Garcia-Nunez),” Osona said. “Then we have a player who came over from hockey, Aliza Mansfield (junior). So we are excited. They got a little taste of success last year, so I think they all know what the season could be this year. Now we’ve got to go little more intense this year.”
With the Whaler’s top three scorers returning, offense shouldn’t be much of an issue for Nantucket. Defensively, Mooney and Myers will likely anchor that end of the court.
“I don’t think Marin gives herself enough credit,” Osona said of his forward. “She doesn’t understand how good she really is, or she is too modest about it. When we went off and played (Bristol-Plymouth) last year I mean, I want to say she almost single-handedly won us that game. She put up a bunch of points (14 of Nantucket’s 32 points in a 32-26 road win) and if we didn’t have her, we wouldn’t have won. She affects the game on the defensive end too in such a positive way, has the ability to score, and may be our best athlete (plays three sports). She also has a great motor.”
The Whalers also welcome back senior Adney Brannigan, who played meaningful minutes her sophomore year before taking her junior year off from the sport.
“We are excited to welcome her back,” Osona said. “She brings great energy, and she is really going to elevate the depth of the team. She’s got a motor and good attitude. So that’s huge.”
Osona said his goal for the team this year is consistency. He wants to see his team play at their ceiling more frequently this season now that they have some experience under their belt, and he said that is the foundation to what makes up a good basketball team.
“I want to be preaching consistency in effort and attitude,” Osona said. “Beyond that you really can’t control much. Putting goals that you can’t control can lead to disappointment pretty quick. But if you can achieve positive goals every day keeping it as simple as positive attitude and effort, you’re going to get a lot of awesome things out of it.”
Nantucket’s first game is scheduled for Friday, December 13th on the road against the Mashpee Falcons at 3:30 p.m. Follow our Nantucket Current Sports Instagram page for more updates as the season progresses.