The Edgartown Eagles girls basketball team (4-0) is alone atop the Martha’s Vineyard interscholastic junior high league after a tough 52-40 victory over a scrappy Tisbury Tigers team (2-4) on Tuesday at the Tisbury School gym.
Kylie Estrella, Edgartown’s premier player, led all scorers with 26 points. Both Ruby Mercier and Deseree London had 12 for the Eagles. Tisbury floor general Braedyn Clark led the Tigers with 16 points, followed by paint protector and rebounder Gaby Vieira, with 12 points.
Isabelle Ribiero, Keissila Cecilia and Asher Gates also scored for the Tigers and Paige Anderson tossed in two for the Eagles.
Referees Amy Maciel and Rich Roy were busy overseeing a game in which every pass and rebound was contested and bodies routinely hit the floors in search of loose balls.
After a cautious first minute in which Edgartown scored the only bucket, the Tigers went on a 10-2 tear, featuring breakaways and sneakaways for easy baskets that led longtime Eagles coach Chad Nelson to implement a half-court defense to slow the Tiger onslaught.
The Tigers led 26-22 at halftime, and extended it to 32-24, thanks to Braedyn Clark’s hot hand. Tisbury held a 34-30 lead with just over seven minutes to go. Then it was Estrella time. The lanky eighth grader took over the contest, scoring 16 points in less than five minutes to put it away.
Both coaches went away happy. Mr. Nelson was happy with the win. “These kids hustle every minute. They are still building their basketball skills, but they give full effort. Kylie? Yeah, she’s going to be a very good one,” he said.
Across the court, coaches India Rose and Holly Baptiste were brimming. “To see how far these kids have come in five weeks is just wonderful. I consider this game a win for us,” Ms. Rose said, noting her squad has only 10 or 11 players, and six or seven play most of the minutes. Ms. Rose was missing a key contributor on Tuesday in starting guard Kat DeSorcy, who is recuperating from pneumonia. “A lot of our kids, like Kat, are playing basketball for the first time. No matter what happens going forward, this game has made our season a success,” Ms. Rose said.
Tuesday was a heartwarming game between a skilled and more polished Eagles unit with a bonafide star and a swarming Tigers team led by Ms. Clark, Ms. Vieira, and Ms. Lacerda.
For hoops fans, watching the junior high program is a treat. It is terrific for fans to watch kids like the Tigers learn the game and develop strategic and floor awareness overnight. And watching an Eagles player dash across the floor during a midgame time out to scoop up and return an errant tyke to the stands? Priceless.