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Sports

Weston Cruises Past Wayland in Round One

Dominant first half propels Wildcats to big tourney win.

All systems were ago for the Weston girls basketball team, which pulled off a stunning 59-34 victory over visiting archrival Wayland last night in the first round of the Division 3 North state tourney.  With the win, the No. 6 seed Wildcats (14-7) advanced to the quarterfinals against No. 3 host Pentucket (18-4), which defeated Watertown in its opening tilt. Wayland, ranked 11th in the circuit, closed at 9-12.

Weston rode a dominant first half to last night’s victory, as the Wildcats led by a whopping 32-10 at the break. After allowing the Warriors to make a little run early in the third quarter, Weston stifled any further opportunities.

“It’s about playing with great intensity,” Weston head coach Linda Martindale said. “The bottom line is not a lot of teams can beat our defense.  If we buy into our defense, we can go a long way in this tournament.”

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The Wildcats played another terrific all-around game, with senior standout Allyson Pemberton leading the troops with 20 points and sophomore star Saliah Serrette grabbing a team-high 17 rebounds, to go along with 12 points, five blocks, and four steals. It was just another typical night for Serrette, who shared Dual County League MVP honors with Wayland’s Jen Berkowitz this winter.

Weston sophomore Bianca Brueckner, meanwhile, helped Serrette on the boards with 11 rebounds to go along with 11 points.

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For her part, Berkowitz led Wayland with 13 points, after feeling a bit under the weather last week.

“She played tough, and she was sick all week,” Wayland head coach Kathleen Thompson said.

But this was Weston’s game. The Wildcats never trailed in the third meeting between the teams this year, Weston winning the other two as well.  The ‘Cats started swiftly with Serrette swishing an outside jumper, and Pemberton canning a three-pointer, before the good crowd could even get comfortable.

Moments later, the cheers were for senior Margaret Cox, who converted a feed from Serrette for a 10-2 Weston advantage. Cox finished with seven points, three rebounds, two assists, and a steal, playing “a phenomenal game,” Martindale said.

Pemberton, meanwhile, went 4-of-4 from the foul line in the first quarter, and also made a key steal and outlet pass to fellow senior Anna Duffey, who finished, putting the Wildcats on top, 16-4.

Weston led, 21-6, after one frame, and the lead eventually grew to 30-8, before Wayland tallied on a pretty fall-away jumper by Morgan Fletcher, who finished with eight points.

“Morgan had a great game, she played hard on defense and made some nice shots, distributed well, and took care of the ball well,” Thompson said.

Wayland chipped away a bit in the second half, cutting the deficit to 35-17 on a three-pointer by senior Emily Ivker. The Warriors got to within 37-25 when Fletcher and junior Madison Lemmo both drained a pair from the charity stripe.

“We played much better in the second half,” Thompson said. “We had 24 turnovers in the first half to 10 in the second. We’re inexperienced. It’s our first time back to the tourney in three years. We’re young, and we have a lot of sophomores, so that bodes well for next year.”

Weston then turned on the gas to score the next five points capped by a Duffey steal and hoop to up the lead to 17. Duffey finished with seven points, two steals, and three assists.

 Brueckner heated up to score seven of her 11 marks in the final frame.

“We started to put more pressure on them,” Martindale said of her team’s second half resurgence.

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