The Westport girls basketball team suffered a heartbreaking loss to West Bridgewater 45-43 during a home game on Wednesday night.

“These games hurt the most,” said Head Coach Michael Ponte. “We had the lead in the third quarter against the best team in the area. We missed some execution points down the end, and that’s the result.”

Wildcats forward Lily Pichette nearly tied the game with seconds left to play. The freshman collected a pass from Jess Carney and cut outside West Bridgewater defender Meg Willis down on the right post and lightly launched a right-handed jumper. The ball looked like it was going in, only to bound lightly off the rim as time ran out.

“Our team is a really good shooting team,” said Carney, the team’s captain. “But, when we get into game situations, sometimes under pressure, they don’t fall.”

Carney got the team rolling in the second quarter by hitting a three-pointer from the right side to cut West Bridgewater’s lead to 23-16.

“Shot the lights out”

In the third quarter, the Wildcats began dropping three-point bombs and overcame a nine point deficit to take a 35-30 lead into the fourth quarter. Eighth grade guards Leah Sylvain, Sarah Edwards and Abbie Zuber all hit threes for the Wildcats.

“It finally clicked,” said Carney. “We started to make our outside shots and we shot the lights out.”

The captain again jump started the scoring. Carney drove to the basket hard and was fouled. She hit a foul shot to make the score 25-17 with 6:06 left in the third quarter.

Coach Ponte had four Wildcats spread around the three-point arc and Pichette playing center in the box. Sylvain hit a three-pointer from the right side of the basket to cut the West Bridgewater lead to 25-20 with 5:43 left in the third quarter.

“We have been working on our spread-out offense where we move the ball faster and shoot from the corners,” said Carney. “The one big thing that coach changed for us this game, was our ball movement. The faster that we move the ball around, it enables us to just square up and get our shots. That’s what made us successful.”

With the Wildcats on defense, Pichette stole the ball under the basket and passed to Slyvain. The point guard ran the ball up court and passed to eighth grader Abbie Zuber standing on the left side of the arc. Zuber launched a three and hit it to cut the lead to 25-23 with 5:01 left in the third quarter.

A jumper by Kelsey Connors extended the West Bridgewater lead to 27-23.

Sylvain hit her third three-pointer of the game to cut the lead to 27-26 with 2:45 left in the third quarter.

West Bridgewater’s tall center Meg Willis hit a jumper from underneath the Westport basket to make it 29-26.

“Eleven (Willis) was immense down the stretch for them,” said Coach Ponte. “She’s a good player.”

But Edwards launched a three-pointer from the top of the arc to tie the game at 29-29 with 2:22 left in the third quarter.

Pichette took a pass from Carney, drove to the basket and drew a foul. She sank both shots to give Westport it’s first lead of the game, 31-29, with 2:02 left in the third.

Carney standing near the baseline hit Pichette with a pass as the freshman burst around Kelsey Connors and put in an easy layup to stretch the lead to 33-29.

Sylvain passed the ball to Zuber and she hit a jumper from the left side just inside the arc to give the Wildcats a 35-30 lead to end the third quarter.

Fourth quarter

Carney stretched the lead in the fourth quarter when she netted a jumper from the right side to give the Wildcats a 37-32 lead with 7:34 in left.

But the bigger and taller West Bridgewater forwards weren’t done. Willis, Abby Bedard and Morgan Doherty began to control the boards at both ends of the court and scored six-straight points for a 38-37 lead with 5:17 in the left in the game.

Five more West Bridgewater points stretched their lead to 43-37.

With 2:19 left in the game, Edwards standing at the top of the arc, hit Carney with a pass as she moved through the box. Carney immediately kicked it back out to Sylvain who hit her fourth three-pointer to cut the lead to 43-40.

Willis put back a jumper from underneath to stretch the West Bridgewater lead to 45-40 with 1:16 left.

With time ticking down, Westport eighth grade guard Dakota Azevedo took the ball up and passed inside the box to Pichette. She swung the ball over to Carney standing on the right post. The captain launched a clutch three-pointer to cut the lead to 45-43 with 10 seconds left in the game.

The Wildcats press forced West Bridgewater into throwing away the inbound pass, giving Westport a chance to tie the game.

Sylvain passed the ball in to Carney. She turned and dribbled to the top of the box and passed to Pichette breaking towards the basket. She cut around the taller Willis and popped up for a right-handed jumper, but the shot bounded off the rim and out of the basket.

As always, I’m proud of their effort, said Coach Ponte. “I think that we fought till the end. We were in the position to tie the game. It’s been the name of the game this season, we haven’t been able to finish certain things when we want to. And that was tonight.”

“I think that we got better as a team tonight,” he said. “I think that a lot of players got better tonight. We’ll have to learn from this and move on.”

The Wildcats can make the state tournament if they win 4 of their 7 remaining games.

Also they can earn a state bid if they come in second in league play.

“We have to beat Sacred Heart, Holbrook and Bishop Connolly,” said Coach Ponrte. “If we beat those teams that should guarantee us a tournament bid.”

Scoring: Leah Sylvain scored 12 points. Jess Carney scored 9 points. Sarah Edwards scored 9 points. Lily Pichette scored 6 points. Abbie Zuber scored 5 points and Avery scored 2 points.