Groton Dunstable Travel Basketball

December 6, 2015

PRESS RELEASE

B5

The fifth-grade boys secured their first victory of the season on Sunday at Oakmont. G-D raced out to a 8-2 lead and were able to hang on for a 29-24 victory in overtime. The record stands at 1-1 with their first home game coming up next week against Hudson. Andrew Stenstream led the way with 14 points, all of which came in the second half and overtime. Taylor Wiercinski added five and Finn Bernard and Evan Laudenslager added four points each. Degefe McCracken-Bradley added eight rebounds to help with the B5 first victory.

B4/5

The combined fourth-fifth-grade boys team came from behind at the half to beat Athol Royalston 29-20. Ryan Hamill, Connor Buchman and Cooper Granville had a terrific day scoring six points each.  Kevin Broderick played great defense and added seven assists. Patrick Kelly and Theo Murphy played tenacious defense helping G-D outscore Athol Royalston 20-10 in the second half to remain undefeated.

G6

The sixth-grade girls never gave up the lead against Nashoba and were able to hold on until the end. G-D played phenomenal defense and was able to take advantage of many fast break opportunities and earned a 16-14 victory.

Clare Joyce led all scorers with six points and Lauren Phelps, Brooke Barry, Taylor Caldwell, Becca Brennan, and Haly Buchmann all added two points each.  

G-D played great team offense and defense and never folded when Nashoba's defense closed in.

B6

The sixth-grade boys fell 34-25 to Acton-Boxboro Gold Sunday during G-d’s away game.  The team was taken down by the skilled ball handling of the A-B team.

Highlights were the continued nice addition of Will Dagle, whose height led to several rebounds and three points. Josh Dai scored 11 and Jem Booth, who made both shots in his 1-and-1 opportunity, made his first baskets as a travel player.

G7

With one minute to go in the inter-league game versus Winchester, the seventh-grade girls’ game was tied at 18 apiece. In that minute, G-D had several good looks at the basket, none of which fell. Winchester was perfect from the line, and that ended up being the difference as Winchester edged G-D, 22-18. G7 executed particularly well on offensive out of bounds plays, getting many easy looks at the basket throughout the game. Unfortunately, the ball wasn’t dropping for G-D and they couldn’t convert enough to get the win. Their defense once again looked good as they threw both a trapping 1-3-1 press and a disciplined man defense at Winchester who struggled in their offensive half-court set. Winchester took big advantage of G-D turnovers both at their end and at midcourt, turning them into costly baskets. Olivia Shusta led G7 in scoring with eight points (including two three-pointers), followed by Brenna O’Malley, who converted her eight rebounds into seven points for G-D. 

B7

The seventh-grade boys played their first crossover game this weekend against a very plucky Hopkinton team. B7 led at the half by 12 points and ended up winning by a final of 38-27. The G-D defense was smothering at times which led to some easy transition points. Offensive standouts were Brandon Wiercinski and Kyle Plausse, while Dougie Tompkins and Riley Curran stood out on the boards.

GD's next opponent is Nashoba at home next Sunday at Middle School North.

G8

The eighth-grade girls shook off a slow start to defeat Woburn 45-25. The first half saw some good back and forth play as both teams played aggressive defense, resulting in a low scoring 17-15 lead for G-D.  

In the second half, G-D was able to turn their pressure defense into solid transition scoring opportunities. The G8's played a very unselfish and aggressive game, with some highlight passes that led to easy buckets.  The second half surge was led by Nicole Tammaro (16 points, five steals) and Bronwyn Mulligan (11 points, 13 rebounds). Cate Bolton, Carolyn Mullins and Lauren Hill were also big contributors with stellar defense and textbook rebounding. The G8's are now 7-0 (2-0 league play) as they prepare for Nashoba next weekend.

B8

The eighth-grade boys welcomed the Northborough squad to their home gym for the day's final game. With smothering defense, B8 jumped all the visitors early in the game grabbing a 17-4 early advantage. While Northborough once cut it to nine late in the game, B8 had control throughout this one, eventually winning 53-38. The team defense was complemented by sharpshooting Tyler Peck who hit for 17 in the game, including five three-point goals. Colin teDuits played a key role on the defensive end and with his rebounding. Joe O'Malley was particularly key to the start of the game, and contributed 13 points. Tim Stark, Charlie Willis, Jack Foster, and Sammie Eggiman combined for 22 points as well, and were key contributors to the victory.