The Lexington High School girls varsity basketball team capped off a historic season with a playoff run to the Elite Eight in the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) Division I winter basketball tournament.
After winning 16 games during the regular season and being ranked among the top ten teams in the bracket, the Minutemen found themselves in the same situation as the year before. However, after last year’s loss in the first round of playoffs, returning players were determined to achieve a different result.
“A lot of these girls were on [last year’s team] and they remember the disappointment of that, so reminding them that your season can end at any given moment and having a sense of urgency was the emphasis going into this [tournament],” Steve Solly, the head coach of the girls varsity basketball team, said.
Stella Criniti, a junior and captain of the team, also credited the team’s success to their maintenance of a positive attitude despite being in an intense game environment.
“I think we just learned that we can’t be super focused on the negative and you just have to move on from a bad play or a bad call and just try to stay together because that was the biggest thing going into the playoffs,” Criniti said.
To help prepare for their games against Acton-Boxborough and Quincy, the team addressed their weaknesses during practice.
“We really worked on zone defense towards the end of the season. That was our main focus every single day, which we had kind of been struggling with before. Working on that during practice really translated over to the games… It’s really important to practice how you want to play,” Faith Kim, a sophomore on the team, said.
During games, the team utilized important routines to help them stay focused in a high-pressure environment and to remind each other of what they were fighting for.
“Pregame, we always gather right before warmups. Then we just talk and motivate each other about what the game will be like and what our main goals are. And I think that’s super important going into the game because people will make little reminders or say little meaningful things,” Criniti said.
Although the Minutemen lost in the Elite Eight to Bishop Feehan High School, the eventual champions of the Division One State tournament, members of the team learned important individual and team lessons from the experience.
“Individually, I think I learned how to be a better leader and how I can help my teammates out and in situations that maybe they haven’t experienced. So for example, a playoff game for a freshman who hadn’t experienced it, when I had. So I think just being some support system to them, it benefits everyone,” Criniti said.
In the end, there was no doubt that it had been a memorable season for the team.
“I remember the last couple of minutes thinking that the game wasn’t over yet. But the excitement was there. And we were all really hype. And once the buzzer rang, we all ran on the court. And it was crazy, because we knew that eight was such a big accomplishment,” Kim said.
