Melrose Lady Raiders Basketball

Friday January 3rd (weather permitting), Melrose hosts Alumnae Night and Stoneham at the Melrose Veterans Memorial Middle School at 7:00 p.m.

Alumnae Night provides an opportunity for players to become reacquainted and for fans to see Melrose hoopsters of yesterday.

The Lady Raiders look for their second win of the season, against the Spartans who lost in the finals of their Holiday Tournament to Woburn.

Melrose returned to action and suffered its third consecutive defeat at the hands of the Tewksbury Redmen, 70-43, in a non-league game at the Melrose Veterans Memorial Middle School. The loss dropped the Lady Raiders to 1-3.

Melrose jumped out to a quick 8-5 lead with a pair of hoops apiece from Katey Sullivan and Olivia Smith. After that, it was all Tewksbury, as their transition game hurt Melrose who simply had no solutions in transition offensively or defensively during Tewksbury's 45-16 run.

Tewksbury took a 24-14 lead into intermission, while Melrose in a slower paced offense had eleven turnovers and no free throw attempts at the half.

Tewksbury removed all doubt in the third period, burying Melrose with a 27-10 advantage to lead 51-24 after three.

Ashley Harding came alive inside with ten second half points to lead Melrose to a 19-all tie for the final period, abetted by some good interior play from Katey Sullivan who finished with eleven points.

Lady Raider Notes: Melrose continues limited by injuries with Allie Nolan and freshman Leonora Ivers out. Coach Lindsay Shanahan added freshman Cat Torpey from JV. Melrose continued to struggle from the free throw line, shooting 7 for 19.



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Preview for Division 2 from The Boston Herald

Pentucket, Watertown, and Arlington Catholic establishing themselves as perennial favorites in the North.

Melrose fell to 1-2 in the Middlesex League, skating on thin ice while traveling to face the Arlington Spy Ponders, who handed Melrose an 80-36 defeat. The win raised Arlington's record to 1-2 after losses to Stoneham and Watertown.

Arlington led from the first score of the game, erupting to a 19-1 lead, capitalizing on Melrose turnovers against their 1-2-2 "jug" three quarter court press and beating Melrose in transition for easy baskets and put backs off misses. Coach Lindsay Shanahan couldn't find any personnel or strategic adjustments to stem the tide.

After the first period the Spy Ponders led 25-6, which they stretched into a 40-19 halftime advantage abetted by 23 first half Melrose turnovers. Allie Bornstein was effective off the bench in the first half, finishing with seven points. Junior Ashley Harding also played tough under the boards, scoring eight points while adding nine rebounds including five on the offensive boards.

The second half was no better for Melrose as Arlington shredded Melrose's traps and leading to uncontested threes and layups. Arlington led 66-27 after three and closed out the win with a 14-9 fourth quarter to hand Melrose a 44 point loss.

Statistically, Melrose again struggled with a turnover to assist imbalance with forty turnovers and only four assists.

Melrose shot 7 for 18 from the free throw line and 14 for 49 from the field, including 1 for 5 on three-point shooting.

Lady Raider Notes: Allie Nolan remained out with a leg injury and Leonora Ivers played sparingly also with a lower body injury.

The junior varsity won 50-11 led by fourteen points from Cat Torpey, eight points and eleven rebounds from Victoria Crovo, and six points from Caroline Nolan.

*This site is not an official publication of the City of Melrose, Melrose High School, or the Athletic Department. All opinions contained within are those of the author alone.

Most of the basketball education occurs at the independent MelroseGirlsBasketball.com site via the basketball blog.

Why not here? First, this site primarily reports available news, limited statistics, and promotional material for Melrose girls basketball. You might read that Jane Doe shot six for six from the free throw line or had fifteen rebounds. You will NEVER read that Jane shot zero for eight, played lethargically, took bad shots, has inherently poor technique, et cetera. A player might have a really difficult overall game, but if she does something positive at an important time, you read THAT and only that. "The star of the team is the team."

The high school players are not professionals and are doing their best. Missed a clutch free throw? Been there, done that. Committed a costly foul? Ditto. Frustrated by a bad official's call? Join the club.

When Jane has a wonderful game (defensively, offensively, balanced floor game), I report it. But I'm not here to carry water for anyone. I am entitled to my opinions; I am not entitled to my own facts. Every sports parent loves and advocates for their child. That doesn't change what happened on or off the court. When you lead your team in scoring with ten points and have ten turnovers, I don't report the individual turnovers. But as a coach, I note both mentally and reflect upon whether that's a happening or a trend.

A hefty dose of education is designed to change behavior. For example, we teach our players what situations are likely to cause turnovers, because turnovers dramatically and statistically reduce a team's chances of success. Certain passes are more likely to be stolen, certain playing behaviors more likely to create turnovers (e.g. violating Mother's Rule about playing in traffic), and so on. Effective coaching alters behavior.

There's a saying that one bad play happens, the second time it's the player, and the third it's the coaching. We regularly tell our young players that it must be OUR bad coaching causing repetitive error. Of course, turnovers are also 'relative' in that a player handling the ball the greatest percentage of the time will likely have more errors than someone who seldom touches it. But that should also be reflected in 'positive plays' like assists and even "hockey assists" the pass leading to the assist.

Also, we tell our players that you play according to what YOUR coach teaches, regardless of how we have taught the skill or principle. We have reasons why we teach what we do, generally reflecting teaching at the highest levels. For example, we teach according to principles outlined in Herb Brown's "Let's Talk Defense," Ernie Woods' "Advanced Basketball Defense", Del Harris' "Winning Defense," and so forth. Where the teams succeed, we credit the players, and where they do not, we own that.

The joy is in the journey not the destination.

Steve Pacheco of Homenewshere has a Middlesex League basketball preview.

This site is not an official publication of the City of Melrose, Melrose High School, or the Athletic Department. All opinions contained within are those of the author alone.

Melrose opened the 2013-14 campaign with a hard-fought 44-42 overtime win over visiting Winchester. Unlike figure skating or competitive diving, style points do not matter in basketball.

The game proved to be the coming out party for freshman Leonora Ivers, whose Performance Rating System plus 12 and monster second half took over the game and delivered new coach Lindsay Shanahan her first victory.

Melrose overcame 3 for 18 first half shooting and twenty-one first half turnovers to earn the victory.

Melrose led 11-8 after one after the officials correctly ruled that Jill MacInnes' three-pointer followed the horn. Winchester had the edge at halftime 20-17 as Melrose had only three first half hoops, but the action continued to heat up during the second half.

After three the Lady Raiders led 31-26 but Winchester rallied to lead 36-35 with 3:15 in regulation. A key three pointer by Maave Moriarty gave Melrose the lead at 38-37 with 2:18 left. Winchester got a late free throw to tie the score, and got the ball after a late turnover with 5.9 seconds left but couldn't convert, sending the game into overtime at 38.

Leonora Ivers scored on a scoop shot to send Melrose ahead 40-38 early, The Sachems rallied to lead 42-41, but Katie Sullivan (7 points) hit a critical mid-range jumper from the short corner to put Melrose ahead for good. Jill MacInnes (at the line for seventeen free throws) hit a late free throw to cement the final margin. Winchester couldn't get off a shot in the final five seconds.

Inside the Numbers: Melrose shot 13 for 46 (unofficially) but cleaned up at the free throw line going 17 for 37 from the stripe.

Melrose had thirty-one turnovers but reduced them by over half after intermission.

Ashley Harding had a big role on the boards with a career high eleven rebounds including nine on the defensive boards. Jill MacInnes had eleven points and six rebounds, and Leonora Ivers had ten points, five steals, four rebounds, led Melrose with two assists, and forced two turnovers in her first varsity game.

John C. Maxwell encourages us to Make a Memory.

A brief recent history of highlights over the past decade plus ensues.