Senior co-captain Whitney Schroeder drove the length of the court to lay in the game-winner with one second left, for a 45-43 Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School (MVRHS) win over Somerset Berkley Tuesday night in girls varsity basketball action at the Sancy Pachico Gym in Oak Bluffs.
Ms. Schroeder’s heroics gave the Vineyarders a crucial win in their pursuit of a state tournament berth. The Vineyarders are 8-7, and need two wins in their final five games to qualify for postseason play.
The young but talented Lady Raiders fell to 3-12 on the season, but gave the Vineyarders all they could handle, mounting a fourth-quarter comeback to erase a nine-point deficit. Raider freshman Jessica Salamone hit a three-ball with nine seconds left to tie the game at 43-43.
The Vineyarders were without super scorer Molly DeBettencourt, who has missed the past two games with an ankle sprain. Before the game, MVRHS Coach Sterling Bishop had a feeling. “Watch Whitney, Kiana Casey, and Rose Engler step up. Rose doesn’t score a lot, but she is a rebound machine,” he predicted.
It’s good to listen to Coach. As it turned out, Ms. Schroeder had 19 points to lead the Vineyarders, followed by Ms. Casey with nine. Ms. Engler’s five second-half points included a layup with 15.7 seconds left to extend the Vineyarder lead to 43-40. There were heroes aplenty Tuesday night, as Lily Pigott made consecutive three-pointers late in the third quarter and freshman Sasha Lakis contributed four points while defending the paint in heavy going all night.
The beginning was deceptively easy for the Vineyarders, who jumped out to a 17-8 lead after the first quarter. Whitney Schroeder led the way with a trio of three-pointers. Then, in period two, the Vineyard offense stopped.
The Lady Raiders got inside for layups and putbacks, while the lid was on the Vineyarder bucket. Somerset Berkley outscored the Vineyarders 10-3 in the period, and only a Sasha Lakis block of a putback at the halftime buzzer allowed MVRHS to exit with a 20-18 lead.
The third quarter seesawed. The Raiders got some easy hoops off steals as the Vineyarders tried to force the ball inside to Kiana Casey, but Lily Pigott’s two three-pointers expanded the Vineyard lead to 35-26 heading into the final period.
Lady Raiders hold off Vineyard jJV girls
Earlier in the afternoon, Emily Mello scored 10 and Summer Cardoza had nine points in a 34-32 junior-varsity cliffhanger loss to the Somerset Berkley JVs. The Vineyarders, winless this season, were down by 14 points with 5:34 left in the game before storming back on a 12-0 run. A Vineyarder game-tying shot at the buzzer hit the rim, then bounced away to preserve the Lady Raider win.