Tall order for young Wildcats

Westport falls to Cohasset in first round playoff loss

Photos and story by Richard W Dionne Jr
Posted 3/6/18

The plucky Westport girls basketball team couldn’t knock off the high seeded Cohasset Skippers as they lost their first round Division 4 South playoff game, 55-21 at Cohasset High School Thursday …

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Tall order for young Wildcats

Westport falls to Cohasset in first round playoff loss

Posted

The plucky Westport girls basketball team couldn’t knock off the high seeded Cohasset Skippers as they lost their first round Division 4 South playoff game, 55-21 at Cohasset High School Thursday evening.

The taller, senior laden Skippers were relentless against the smaller, speedy Wildcats. Cohasset combined pressing defense and fast break with three-pointers in the first half and ran out to a 33-10 halftime lead. The Skippers’ height and offensive rebounding led to second and third shots in the first half and forced the younger Cats into costly mistakes early.

And that was just their first act. They scored 13 more in the third quarter for a 46-16 lead, ending any Westport for a comeback after the half.

“Cohasset is a different level of basketball. That’s a really good team. It’s a true basketball program with a great coach, great group of girls. We lost to them last year by seven when they were junior laden and now they are senior laden. I tell you what, maybe Coyle High School, maybe Cathedral, but no one else is beating this team. That’s a great team. And I think that we learned that if we want to get to this level, we’ve got a lot of work to do,” said Cats Head Coach Michael Ponte.

Added senior Madison Martins, “The majority of the girls on Cohasset were seniors and I think for the younger girls on our team it was kind of nerve wracking. But Cohasset played great. They are a tough team. The starting lineup for Westport is underclassmen and that’s surprising for some people. We are kind of the underdogs and sometimes we are underestimated, but I feel that we played a great game, we played our hardest and I’m very proud of our team.”

Wildcat scorers were led by 8th grade guard Laila Silver who scored 12 points.

“Laila played well. She missed a couple of shots early on. But Laila always plays well. She is a superb talent. There will be bright things in her future. She’ll have between 500-600 points before she reaches high school. There are going to be a lot of big games in Laila Silver’s future. Whether they are with us, I’m not sure, but, if that was her last game with us, then I was proud to have coached her. She is a heck of a talent and a heck of a kid. She’ll be a program changer where ever she goes and I’m glad I got to coach her the last two years,” said coach Ponte.

The scrappy Cats, piloted by seniors Madison Martins and Ashlie Thatcher, played tough throughout the game. Seventh graders Leah Sylvain, Dakota Azevedo and eighth grader Laila Silver and freshman Jess Carney started the game with Madison Martins. Despite the size mismatch, the Cats kept trying to drive the lane and get to the basket through a gauntlet of Skippers.

“Madison and Ashlie are great leaders and great kids. They are two girls who are going to be successful in life. They lead by example. Academics and integrity always come first with them. I couldn’t ask for two better leaders. They’ve been a big part of this program and I wish we could have gotten a win in the tournament for them. I wish them the best of luck as they move on,” said the coach.

Senior Ashlie Thatcher, a four year player for Westport, was proud of the Cats and what they achieved.

“Obviously it’s always tough to lose a tournament game. But I’m proud of our girls for the things that we’ve had to overcome over the years. Merging the two schools (Junior and Senior), having 12 underclass players play alongside us 18-year-olds. But we just meshed as a team really quickly and I’m proud of the season that we had.”

Added Martins, “I’m very proud of us because we are just so young. Everybody thinks we are such a young team, and it’s ’Oh, Westport’s not a big deal,’ and then they are really kind of surprised when we play them.”

Athletic Director Jason Pacheco added, “Coach did a great job. The girls played really hard and that’s all you can ask of them. It’s one of those games that you hope to get off to a good start and put the pressure on them. Unfortunately we didn’t get off to that good start. But we hung in there and the young girls showed a lot of heart.”

“They always play hard. The team never backed down. They played hard the whole game. I’m always, always going to be proud of these girls,” said coach Ponte.

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