Malden High Girls Basketball off to a solid start in the GBL

Wins over Chelsea and Lynn Classical to kick off season

By Steve Freker

Malden High Girls Basketball is off to a perfect start in Greater Boston League (GBL) play so far this season, and it’s a breath of fresh air for a team that has been working hard to get this season going. Head Coach Scott Marino’s squad blasted Chelsea, 51-21, in its season and home opener last week and then doubled up with a 41-34 win on the road at Lynn Classical Tuesday night. The pair of wins left Malden at a perfect 2-0 in GBL competition heading into Thursday night’s road game at Somerville High (after Advocate press time).

Malden did drop a tough one on the road at North Quincy on Friday, Dec. 31, 69-38; the record is now at 2-1 overall.

Against Chelsea, everyone played well, led by senior Amanda Fowke, who led all scorers with 18 points and pulled 11 rebounds. Ina Tolete added 9 points against Chelsea and sophomore Manicha Exilhomme added 8 points. Fowke also led Malden against Lynn Classical with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

It was a solid win for Malden, coming against the defending GBL champ Lynn Classical. “It was not easy, but not many games in our league are that way,” Coach Marino said, “It’s competitive every night and a lot of the teams are evenly matched. We limited our mistakes and overall played pretty well on both ends of the court.”

It’s been a good start all around for Malden High girls basketball, which saw a huge turnout for preseason tryouts: some 86 girls for the three levels of teams. “It’s the most we’ve ever had for our program,” the Malden coach added. “It was great to see. We have been working hard to draw more interest with our youth teams.”