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All Photos Taken by Bo Stead
The Golden Tornados Girls’ Basketball team, led by Head Coach Scott Marino improved to an 9-3 record after an offensive masterclass in the home contest against the Chelsea Red Devils. The game ended with a 59-24 final score. Senior and captain of the team, Tori Gammon was the game’s leading scorer, tallying 14 points. Also making a significant impact was junior guard Kimberly Tropnas with 11 points, Jenesa Perez-Sims with 15 points, and Sophia Rodrigues with 13 points.
Malden came out in the first quarter with their starting five of: Kimberly Tropnas, Ina Tolete, Maddie Cook, Tori Gammon, and Amanda Ebenezer.
The Malden starting five came out playing extremely aggressively, with Gammon starting the game out with an and-one bucket. Malden immediately began a full-court press on Chelsea’s inbound which stayed persistent through much of the first half. The Red Devils were visibly pressured by the press and had trouble even getting the ball to halfcourt.
Chelsea was so overwhelmed by the press that Tropnas was able to snag two steals and use her blazing speed for two fastbreak buckets. At this point, the score was 9-0, halfway through the first quarter. Offensively, Malden had the edge however both teams were struggling to grab offensive rebounds and convert them to points.
For the remainder of the quarter, Malden continued to blow up passing lanes, allowing virtually no offensive production for the Red Devils, and in the meantime, grabbing six more points mainly by Gammon to end the quarter at a score of 15-4.
Chelsea opened the second quarter with a three, but that was quickly responded by Malden’s Maddie Cook. Tropnas was a shining star in the second quarter as her speed around the court was too much of any of the Red Devils to handle, Tropnas getting herself seven points in the quarter alone. The score was 25-7 Malden with five minutes left until the half. Malden held Chelsea to zero points as the half approached and brought the score up to 34-7 as both teams went into the locker rooms for halftime.
Malden kept the same game speed up as for the entire duration of the third quarter, Chelsea was held to just eight points. Simultaneously, on the offensive end, the Golden Tornados were raining threes, the score was 45-15 at the end of three quarters.
Heading into the final quarter, the pace overall for both teams slowed, with both teams going into the paint and drawing fouls. After many free throws for the last five minutes, the final score was 59-24.
Ina Tolete after the game, noted that the team “supported each other regardless of the score or who was out there playing”. Tolete also mentioned when talking about her performance, “I was able to get the ball to my teammates for open shots,” however she recognized her weak point as, ”I could have put more pressure on defense”.
Kimberly Tropnas believed that the team moving forward has to “work on lifting each other up when we are down on ourselves”. Tropnas additionally mentioned, “we did a great job with ball movement.” Tropnas, as the junior guard who was a spark plug on defense with several steals and many of her points coming off fastbreaks, recognized “I did a good job stealing the ball, but I need to slide my feet more and prevent guards from getting past me so easily.” The hunger of this Malden team to succeed is so obvious with their eagerness to work on defense even after a great game defensively.
Captain and senior, Tori Gammon applauded the defense of Malden, noting the team did “an excellent job anticipating the defense and their every move.” Gammon remarked that the team has to work on not “playing down” to their competition which causes them to “play catch-up”. The captain hopes the team will better themselves from “being stuck on mistakes rather than forgetting about it and improving on the next play.”
After a grueling week of three games, Head Coach Scott Marino was pleased with the team going 3-0. Marino noticed that the team played “ a lot looser” and he was grateful he could “play some of the bench” in the game. Moving forward, Marino looks to keep the pace and achieve their next goal of “winning the GBL” (Greater Boston League) which they are battling Lynn Classical and Revere in the week of 1/22 which will determine who wins the GBL. Marino also mentioned that the team is only one win away from qualifying for states. In order to achieve these goals Marino is pleased with the way “communication has been improving, along with rebounding, they’re getting better as a group and playing with confidence.” Finally, Marino remarked “You’re always going to get my best”, when talking about his coaching. He also concluded “my staff is the best, they’re loyal and we all have a shared vision and goal, we know we are more prepared than any other team we play.”
You can look forward in the coming weeks to see if these girls do win the GBL and make their qualification for the MIAA State Tournament.
