Mallards ‘play their hearts out’ in game
(March 1, 2013) The Worcester Prep girls’ basketball team’s season came to an end last week, when the Lady Mallards were eliminated from the Eastern Shore Independent Athletic Conference tournament by the Salisbury School Dragons.
Despite falling to the Dragons 40-23 in Salisbury last Wednesday, Prep Coach Page Rogers was pleased with the girls’ performances during the conference semifinal match-up.
“When you play against Salisbury School, all you can hope for is that you can play your best. We gave them a game and we hadn’t before,” Rogers said. “They only had 23 points at halftime and that’s huge for us. We decided to play ‘box-and-one’ [defense] against them and we had Lilly DiNardo guarding their best player, Demyra Selby, which was really effective. I don’t think they were ready for that.”
When the two teams went head-to-head during the regular season, the Dragons came out on top 62-23 and 59-17.
During the squads’ third match-up on Feb. 20, Salisbury led 10-8 at the end of the first quarter. The Mallards pulled ahead in the second quarter, but a few calls by the referees didn’t go their way and the home team went on a 6-0 run in the final minutes. The Dragons had a 23-12 advantage at halftime.
“That kind of took the wind out of our sails a bit,” Rogers said.
Salisbury outscored Worcester 11-4 in the third quarter to increase its lead to 34-16. The Mallards tallied seven points in the final quarter, while the Dragons netted six.
“The girls played their hearts out. We couldn’t have ended our season playing any better,” Rogers said.
Prep sophomore Sophie Brennan scored six points. Senior captain Meredith Smith had five points, nine rebounds and three steals.
The Mallards’ finished the year 12-6. Brennan and senior captain Molly Marshall received All-ESIAC Second Team accolades.
“We started out the season stronger than I think we ever imagined. It proved to the girls they’re good basketball players,” Rogers said. “Then there was exam week followed by winter break so that was two weeks without basketball, while the other teams had practices and games. We were in a slump for a little while, but we ended the season playing really well.”
The team will only graduate two players — Marshall and Smith.
