ITEM PHOTO BY KATIE MORRISON
Lynn Tech’s Jailene Rivera finds a clear lane to the hoop.
By KATIE MORRISON
LYNN — The Lynn Tech girls basketball team is finding a rhythm and has realistic hopes of reaching the state tournament this season.
But even with the success the Tigers have had, there will still be days like this.
Tech couldn’t contain Commonwealth Athletic Conference foe Shawsheen Tech Tuesday night at home, as the offense stalled in a 55-24 loss.
“Having played in this league for as long as we’ve been playing, we know what teams are expected to be better than us,” Tigers coach Kaitlyn Wechsler said. “We don’t always think we can compete with them, and we really can. The first quarter showed that today, but we let them get away…we’re not yet at the point where we can take a game no one is expecting us to.”
It was a game the Tigers would rather forget, but it didn’t look like it’d turn out that way in the first quarter. Tech’s offense looked to be working as well as it had in the Tigers’ 63-point performance in a win over St. Clement Monday. Tech held Shawsheen to 15 points in the first and trailed by five, 15-10, after a quarter.
But things went downhill from there.
Shawsheen started the quarter on a 5-0 run until Tech’s Alondra Sanchez hit one of two free throws with 4:15 left in the second. But a couple of lost rebounds, turnovers and fouls led to six quick points for the Rams, allowing Shawsheen to build a lead that would be tough for Tech to overcome.
Annmarie Teixeira made the Tigers’ first and only field goal of the quarter with 1:40 left in the half, sinking a shot from the paint. But otherwise, the Tech offense struggled. Bad passes and losing out on rebounds kept the Tigers from creating any momentum, and Shawsheen took advantage, taking a 36-13 lead into the half.
The second half looked a lot like the second quarter and not much like the first, but the Tigers were able to stifle the Shawsheen offense for the better part of the third quarter. Michayla Lawrence opened the scoring for Tech, putting back an offensive rebound, and the Tigers held off the Rams until a breakaway layup got Shawsheen back on the board with 1:50 left in the third.
That opened the floodgates, though, and the Rams went on another run, taking a 47-15 lead after three thanks to a buzzer-beating three from Shawsheen.
Prior to Tuesday’s game, the Tigers had won three in a row, and were finding their stride. The loss drops Tech back below .500 at 5-6 just a day after the Tigers had reached the mark, but Wechsler is determined to not let the loss derail the progress her team has made.
“I told them we need to forget about it and move on,” Wechsler said. “We need to mentally prepare for these kinds of games because when we reach the tournament, which is our goal, that’s what we’ll be facing, so we need to be ready for that.”
The Tigers will have almost a week to regroup; they won’t play again until Monday.
There were some bright spots for Tech Tuesday, however. Sanchez had a big first quarter and finished with 12 points to lead the Tigers. Lawrence added four points, and Arianna Anaya hit a big three in the first quarter.
Katie Morrison can be reached at [email protected].