Sports Roundup: Girls & Boys Hoops Close Out Regular Seasons

This Whaler sports roundup includes updates on the girls basketball team after a last second defeat in their regular season finale, as well as the boys basketball team following a heartbreaking loss in the league championship game and a win the day after to conclude their regular season. Both teams also celebrated their seniors before their games.

Girls Hoops Eliminated From Postseason Contention Following Strong Effort Against Mashpee

The girls basketball team lost to the Mashpee Falcons 42-41 Thursday evening, and the loss ultimately cemented their record at 9-10 – meaning they will not qualify for the MIAA Div. 4 state tournament. But the Whalers pieced together their strongest effort of the season and went out making their head coach, Jillian Fraker, proud of their growth.

"I think we lost by 30 points or 40 points the last time we played Mashpee and what was amazing tonight is we got down in the first quarter and they didn't give up," Fraker said, as her team trailed by nine points early on in the game. "They were playing as a team. The bench was going crazy for everybody, the home crowd. There's nothing you want more than that type of a game against a team that I saw a stat we haven't beaten Mashpee in 20 games or something, and we were right in it until the end there. You could say it was foul shots, you could say it was whatever play but honestly, I could not be more proud of the team.”

Nantucket was led by senior captain Maddie Lombardi, who scored 16 points – including four from three-point range. They also got 10 points from senior captain Alana Ludvigson, who was battling an illness but gutted through it to be there for her team in a must-win game. Freshman Grace Schroeder finished with eight points.

Lombardi and Ludvigson were two of the four seniors honored before the game, along with Adney Brannigan and Mani Taveras. Fraker, who took over midseason following the sudden firing of former head coach Rafael Osona, said they were a great group to coach.

“We're losing four seniors and four seniors that are leaders in their own way," Fraker said. "We're going to be in the process of rebuilding, but I'm excited about everybody that is coming up. We've got a great group of eighth graders coming up into the new freshmen class next year, and there's a lot to look forward to. Hopefully we can use tonight's game as motivation moving into the next season.”

Boys Hoops Finish Regular Season 8-12

It was a wild end to the season for the boys basketball team, which now awaits the unveiling of the MIAA Div. 4 state tournament bracket to see if they did enough to clinch a spot in this year’s tournament. They finished their regular season 8-12, and in the past two days suffered a heartbreaking 60-59 loss to the Monomoy Sharks on Wednesday and beat the Mashpee Falcons 68-57 on Thursday.

The Whaler’s game against Monomoy ended on a buzzer-beater three point shot by Sharks senior guard and captain Jackson Rocco. Rocco and the Sharks inbounded the ball with just over five seconds to go and worked it up court where Rocco made an incredible shot unbalanced down 59-57 to clinch his team the Cape & Islands League Championship, as well as a spot in the state tournament bracket (in all likelihood).

"I don't know what to say," Whaler head coach Willis Ferreira said after Wednesday's loss. "I've been doing this a long time. Bad coaching. I got to find a way to – we know the ball's going there (on the final play). I had Amare (Bramwell)on him, probably my best defender. Kid's got good legs. He rises up. He's getting that shot off over everybody. It just happened to go in. It sucks because we had a big lead again, blew it, and we got a lead late with five seconds left. I thought we battled.”

The Whaler's achilles heel all season has been their inability to hold onto double digit leads they build early in games, and that came back to haunt them against Monomoy as they held a 35-17 lead over the Sharks at halftime. But Nantucket got into some foul trouble, which forced them to shuffle through their bench and disrupted any sort of rhythm they had built.

On Thursday, the Whalers honored their seniors (Donte Brimm, Jake Haigh, Ja’Sir Smith, and Jayden Williams) and started their seniors alongside junior center Ethan Jarrett to begin the game.

Mashpee built a quick 15-5 lead after one quarter. It was a back-and-forth game for most of the action, but Nantucket eventually pulled away in the fourth quarter behind 10 points by junior guard Vallon Jeanty in the final frame.

Given Nantucket finished with a record below .500, they will need to depend on finding themselves within the division’s Top 32 in order to make this year’s tournament, which is based on a points formula factoring in strength of schedule and margin of victory (any victory 10 points or over counts as the same, maximum win). As of Tuesday morning prior to their wins over Dennis-Yarmouth and Mashpee and loss to Monomoy, the Whalers were the #34 seed.

Brackets will be released on Saturday, February 22^nd.

SCHEDULE AHEAD:

Saturday, February 22^nd:

The boys swim team will be represented by two of their own at the MIAA Div. 2 state championship meet. Senior Jake Johnson and sophomore Eli MacIver are the two Whaler swimmers who qualified for states. Johnson will compete in the 50-yard freestyle and the 100-yard freestyle. MacIver will compete in the 200-yard individual medley and the 100-yard breaststroke.