Week two of the early season found Watertown Girls Basketball at 1-1 after a win at home versus Belmont and a road loss to Woburn by 20. Into the Victor J.Palladino Gymnasium at the Watertown Middle School came the Wilmington Wildcats and a 1-1 record of their own. So who went home with a 2-1 record at the end of the night? The Watertown Raiders to the tune of a 45-26 win that was never close.
Wilmington averaged 49 points in their first two games, but tonight they couldn’t put the ball in the hoop if the ball was the size of an award-winning pumpkin at the Topsfield Fair and the basket was the size of 10 little red riding hood baskets for granny stitched together into one. And the irony is they ran their half court offense pretty well, and in some ways more smoothly than Watertown, but they could not finish. The ball and the the rim were worst of friends. They missed a lot. Are we clear?
Watertown led 13-0 before Wilmington finally scored with a minute and a half left in the first quarter. At quarters’ end it was 17-4 Raiders. The second quarter was no friendlier to the Wildcats — they mustered one basket and trailed 25-6 at the half. Watertown was led by Brook Lambo with 8 and Natalie Haley with 7.
The Raiders, as I mentioned last week, are going to experience good days and bad this season. They are young and small, and not overly aggressive – or at least not yet. They struggled with rebounding and gave Wilmington a ton of second and third shots, but have I mentioned – the Wildcats could not score.
Well, they did build on a six-point half with 10 points in the third, but Watertown scored 15 of their own in a quarter highlighted by the play of freshman Diana Martin. She rebounded, defended and scored five points on top of the two hoops she had in the first quarter. She ended up with 9 points on the night.
While the Raiders went cold in the fourth and the Wildcats duplicated their “sizzling” shooting from the third quarter in the fourth with another 10-point effort, the game was far out of reach at this point. High scorer on the night was freshman Natalie Haley with 14, including two 3-pointers. Natalia Keuchkarian and Lambo each had 10.
Watertown moves to 2-1 with the 45-26 win and after a roadie at Stoneham on Monday, Dec. 22 won’t play a league game again until Jan. 6, 2026. For a young and inexperienced team with a lot of potential and some really good young talent, the start to this season is something I’m sure Coach Tempesta is pleased with. A win at Stoneham and a 3-1 record into the break would make for a great holiday gift for the Raiders!
Happy Holidays to one and all!!
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1 2 3 4 – F
Wilmington 4 2 10 10 – 26
Watertown 17 8 15 5 – 45
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Watertown
Natalie Haley… 14 points
Brook Lambo… 10
Natalia Keuchkarian… 10
Diana Martin… 9
Sophia Setouhi… 2
Wilmington
Erin McCarthy… 9 points
Leah Murphy… 7
Isabella Goldstein… 6