WESTBOROUGH – The Westborough High School girls basketball team’s dominant 2021-2022 season came to a difficult end at home against Amherst-Pelham on Friday night, with the Hurricanes beating the Rangers 48-38.
Things see-sawed back and forth through the first three quarters of the game. Ultimately, though, a strong finish for Amherst-Pelham secured the win, eliminating Westborough from state tournament play.
“We were hoping to wrap up with a win here at home before hopefully playing a game next week,” Westborough head coach Liz Orlando told the Community Advocate after the loss. “But I’m so proud of them.”
Amherst-Pelham took a slim 6-5 lead in the first quarter.
They expanded their advantage heading into halftime, at that point leading by a score of 26-18.
Westborough outscored Amherst-Pelham by a 2-1 margin in the third quarter, nearly tying the game heading into its final frame.
Westborough started the fourth quarter down 33-32. They fell further behind from there, though, with Amherst-Pelham padding its lead for the 10-point win.
Orlando and her team were disappointed by the loss.
However, reflecting on a season that saw this team make a long-awaited return to playoff action, Orlando reiterated her pride in her players’ accomplishments.
“[It was] definitely a good feat,” she said. “[This was] not, obviously, what we were hoping for. But we gave it our all.”
The Rangers started their season with a 12-0 start, remaining undefeated into the first week of February.
They ended the regular season with a 15-4 record, earning them 16th place in the state’s power ranking of Division III teams.
Orlando credited the program’s senior class for some of this success.
“These seniors really helped turn this program around,” she said.
Rangers basketball players Makenna Thrush, Kristin Wilichowski, Callie Henderson and Grace Burns are all members of the Class of 2022.
While this squad will lose those players, ten other members of this year’s roster will be able to return to the WHS court next year if they opt to do so.
Orlando sees that future and said she’s hopeful that the team can continue to grow.
“I’m just happy they got to experience this group of seniors,” she said of her younger players. “They worked so hard. It’s just going to be building off of this [in the future].”
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