Tide girls basketball continues to work hard to gain that winning edge for the stretch run

After taking on host Malden last night, Everett finally returns home next week to face Lynn English, Medford

By Joe McConnell 

The Everett High School girls basketball team (1-6) is trying to put things together, and with six weeks left in the regular season there’s still time to turn it around in a positive direction. But in the meantime, the Crimson Tide dropped three more games throughout this past week, falling to Lynn English, Lowell and Somerville.

On Jan. 10, the Bulldogs were all over the Everett girls to the tune of 63-38. “This was a tough game against a really tenacious Lynn English team,” said coach Riley Dunn.

The Tide’s senior captain Emilia Maria Babcock led all Tide scorers in this road game in Lynn with 18 points.

Three days later, non-league host Lowell defeated the Tide, 52-24 to begin a new week.

“The final score does not (reflect) how hard my girls worked in this game,” said Dunn. “They fought until the last second, while keeping the energy high throughout the entire game. I was very proud of their resilience and support for their teammates in a challenging game (against a perennial playoff team).”

The Tide’s Julianna Rivera calmly went 4-for-4 from the free throw line. Maria Babcock led all Everett scorers with 14 points, while also coming up with three steals. Junior Nicole Damaceno fought hard underneath the boards to account for 10 rebounds.

The road trip continued the very next night at Somerville, where the host Highlanders escaped past their Greater Boston League (GBL) rivals, 53-46.

“This was one heck of a battle,” said Dunn. “We battled (despite trailing) the entire game, and (continued to fight) to the last minute. We battled back through injuries and foul trouble, but unfortunately fell just short.”

Freshman Julianna Rivera led all Tide scorers with 19 points. She also dominated down low with eight rebounds. Damaceno also had a monster game on the boards, pulling down 18 rebounds. Maria Babcock was credited with 15 points and eight rebounds.

The Everett girls went up against Malden in another road game last night (Jan. 16) after press deadline, before finally coming home next week to take on Lynn English (Jan. 21, 6 p.m.) and Medford (Jan. 23, 6 p.m.). They hope that the familiar surroundings will turn around these close games into wins in order to build up some momentum for the stretch run.