Facing tough competition early in the season, the Silver Lake High girls’ basketball team had a hard time picking up wins at the beginning of their season. However, they continued to grow as a unit as the year progressed and ended up enjoying more success in the second half of the year.
Six of the first seven teams the Lakers faced at the start of the season ended up being tournament teams: Bridgewater-Raynham, East Bridgewater, Duxbury, Pembroke, Plymouth North and Falmouth. While they started the year off by losing their first five games, the team coached by Olly deMacedo did pick up wins against New Mission, North Quincy and Quincy in the final month of the season to finish the year at 4-17.
Once Holly Reeder-Morning come back to the team from her ACL injury midway through the season, they saw an uptick in their offensive production and their overall success. A junior this season, she will be back again next season for her fourth year on varsity.
This season, the Lakers had a healthy mix of veterans and younger players, so experience should not be a big issue for them next season. This time around, they had five seniors on their roster: Izzy Ruprecht, Jessica Stas, Brianna Villanova and Stephanie Bennett.
On the other hand, they will have plenty of players coming back next season, who are varsity contributors. These include players such as Molly Turbush, Riley Dunphy, Erin Demacedo, Lily Gustafson, Lilly Noonan, Kiley O’Brien and Natalie Bouchard, as well as Reeder-Morning.
That said, the Lakers have the foundation set so that they can keep working hard in hopes of enjoying more success in the future–and it is certainly attainable. After all, the team won 16 games and made it to the tournament in the 2017-2018 season.