Lady Raiders Lose To Westwood, 54-47

The Dover-Sherborn girls varsity basketball team fell to Westwood 54-47 Tuesday night, at Westwood High School. 

The Lady Raiders, who lost to the Wolverines by 31 points last month, came out with a newfound intensity as they ignored all the hoopla, of Westwood's Senior Night, off the court and jumped out to a 28-23 halftime lead.

“We were just trying to concentrate on the things that we do well,” said Dover-Sherborn head coach Heather Ernest. “It’s just a matter of reading what the defense gives you. I wanted them to attack the basket to penetrate and pitch and they did a great job of that in the first half and we really controlled the tempo of the game.”

Sophomore Abby Greene and senior Catherine Oglevee caught fire and put in 20 of the Raider’s 28 first-half points.

The third quarter belonged, however, to Westwood senior Emily McGrail, who exploded for 16 points and two steals and put the team on her back amidst arguably the most pivotal comeback of the season.

“It was definitely the best quarter of basketball that Emily McGrail has played all year,” Westwood head coach Brianne Bognanno said. “It was all about intensity and she was the spark plug out there and got the entire team going.”

The Wolverines outscored the Raiders 22-6 in the frame and rounded out the quarter on a 12-0 run.

Westwood extended the lead all the way to 19 points midway through the fourth but the Raiders pulled out one more bag of tricks. They scored the final 12 points of the contest, including six from Ogelvee who finished with 13 and Ernest credited her team for its competitiveness.

“I thought we did a really good job not rolling over and playing dead when we got down,” she said. “We were still fighting to the very last second ticked off the clock and it shows we are finally playing as a team and will continue to work hard as long as there is time on the clock.”