Vanessa Nguyen, Israa Howard, Aaliyah Nowlan, William Yu, and Bilal Psarly also contributed to this article
As the Girls Varsity Basketball team began their season with a 4-4 record, tension echoed through the Finn Gym when the team warmed up to face Lynn Classical on January 6th, 2026.
A hush fell upon the crowd as the sounds of the balls dribbling and squeaking sneakers filled the room, with all eyes on the players. The game began with Malden working on communication and collaboration for warm-ups while the stands filled with audience members. Malden passed the ball to each other, shuffling down the court. The ball soared through the court. Swish echoed through the gym after every practice shot.
“Each practice we work on team stuff like dribbling, shooting, and then we work on our plays and what type of defense we need to play, and what type of offense we need to run against the next team that we’re going to be playing,” freshman Briella Nesta stated.
The tip-off started with Lynn Classical possessing the ball and scoring the first basket. Lynn Classical remained in the lead for most of the first quarter regardless of Malden’s attempt. In the last two minutes of the first quarter, Malden was 16-0, but after long battles and multiple fouls, sophomore Mirka Kovacevic-Marinkovic made Malden’s first point after efforts from senior Janesa Perez-Sims.
As Malden eagerly passed to one another, hoping to get a free shot into the hoop, the bench cheered “Malden Tornados!” in hopes to hype the girls up. Perez-Sims, in an effort to box out, led to a foul shot for Lynn Classical.
Quarter one continued with the cries of “Defense, Defense!” from the crowd. Junior Manicha Exilhomme made a lay-up with a pass from Nesta. As Lynn Classical tried to dribble past Malden defenders, attempting a lay-up, Malden stole the ball back. Perez-Sims charged down the court to make a successful lay-up, earning Malden two points, ending the first quarter with the score of 22-6.
“I feel like when we’re on the court, and we see that we’re down, I feel like we just kind of slack a little bit,” Perez-Sims stated while also emphasizing team improvement in having “a sense of urgency.”
“We didn’t come up with a sense of urgency. We ended up going down almost 20 points in the first quarter. We fought back, but it just wasn’t good enough because we lost the first quarter,” Coach Scott Marino expressed after the game.
After being down in the first quarter, Malden scored the first point in the second quarter. Several rebound efforts from senior Jaziarra Antione and Exilhomme, allowed Antione to make a lay-up with a pass from Exilhomme. Antione was fouled but missed the free throw, and the ball ended up with a Lynn Classical player making a 3-pointer.
As soon as Malden rebounded the ball, Exilhomme went in for a lay-up but received a foul and made her first penalty shot. Soon after, Malden claimed possession and senior Madison Cook attempted to pass the ball to Exilhomme, but it was intercepted by Lynn Classical. Exilhomme then retrieved the ball, raced down the court, and made a swift lay-up.
Lynn Classical regained control of the ball, and they made a lay-up. Malden had the ball again with Exilhomme and Antione attempting to rebound the ball after senior Sophia Rodrigues missed, but Exilhomme was fouled and made her second free-throw, resulting in a score of 27-12, with Malden having 12 points.
Soon after, Exilhomme passed the ball to Kovacevic-Marinkovic, leading to a successful hoop.
As both teams scored on each other,, in the last five minutes of quarter two, a timeout was called by Malden. Soon after, the players ran back on the court and Exilhomme made a lay-up after a pass from Rodrigues, bringing the score to 27-15
During the third and fourth quarters, Malden tried to maintain a calm pace in attempts to gain more points to win. After several scores made by Exilhomme and her teammates, Malden was still down by a substantial amount but with unwavering determination, they were able “to come back and continue into quarter three,” Nesta recalled. The third quarter unfortunately ended with a 46-35 score, with Malden trailing behind.
Fueled with ambition from both sides, many more points were scored in succession Malden eventually lost the fourth quarter with a final score of 55-46.
An 8th grader on the freshman team, Annie Tan stated that Malden could have gone for a “tighter defense” and “guarded them a little bit better.” Marino added that Malden “didn’t play flawlessly, but the energy was there.”
Michaela Ilebode, the Girls’ JV Basketball Team’s coach, stated that the team needs to work on “using the team as a whole.”
Despite the loss, Malden plans to focus on team building, upcoming games, and potentially winning the Greater Boston League.
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