Dragons come up short, but have reason to not hang their heads

Courtesy of Tom Henning

The HSMSE Dragons were a team that desperately needed a win Friday after dropping their first three games of the season. However in a gritty battle between HSMSE and ICE, the desperate win did not come.

An early problem for the HSMSE Dragons were that they were not passing the ball well in the 1st half which led to many turnovers. Larissa Wormsby, a senior for ICE, intercepted a pass during the second period and drove for a layup extending the lead for ICE. There also seemed to be a lot of miscommunication for the Dragons. One girl would constantly pass one way while the other girl would be running another. It looked like some sloppy basketball in the first half, putting the Dragons in an early 15-6 hole.

However the 2nd half looked like a bit of a re-energized offense and a hope for the future. Despite being completely outscored in the first half, the Dragons were only outscored by four in the 2nd half. Passing between the HSMSE Dragon offense was much more consistent and in the third period, the Dragons erupted for a total of eight points despite Donna Fintzi, a sophmore and one of the top HSMSE Dragon scorers, being double covered for the beginning of the half. Sophomore Mikaela Bloch, sunk a nice bank shot three pointer right before the sound of the buzzer to make it 25-11 at the end of third period. The Dragon offense would not show anymore fight after that, and despite signs of good effort and good passing, the Dragons were outscored in every period.

“We have had a lot of opportunities and we need to get the ball in the net,” said Donna Fintzi when spoken too after the game. Indeed, the Dragons missed a number of shots that they should have made. However they still set a record this year on offense scoring 16 points and it was mainly because of the improvement of the passing in the second half.

The Dragons defense played pretty well all game and did not allow ICE to get open shots. “I think the [defense] was able to stop a lot more shots [this game],” said coach Diunte. The defense made ICE earn the win and forced ICE to spread the ball around the court.

With a tough loss, the Dragons can at least reflect on some improved defense, but for the most part, the offense needs to be consistent for the entire game if the Dragons are going to win.

-contributed by Geoffrey Nathan