TAUNTON — When it gets to March and tournament time, it’s not rare to see close games and thrilling finishes.
But in Monday night’s D2 semifinal against Oliver Ames, the Medfield girls basketball team was not about drama.
The Warriors jumped out to an early lead and never looked back in a 60-46 victory. Top-seeded Medfield awaits the winner of Tuesday night’s game between Northampton and Worcester South.
With the win, Medfield improves to 22-2, while Oliver Ames’ season is over at 17-7.
“Feels good. Been a long time (since Medfield advanced to the state title game),” Medfield coach Mark Nickerson said. “It’s been seven years since we’ve been there. We’ve had a couple of close calls the last couple years, so I was hoping we might get over the hump this year. Nice to have an opportunity to win a state championship. But we’re going to see a real good team coming after us. It’s not going to be easy. We’re going to have to work hard for it.”
Leading the way for Medfield was sophomore Izzy Kittredge, who finished with a game-high 21 points. She hit the game’s first field goal with a left wing 3-pointer, and put on a display of scoring, both with her jumper and with drives to the basket.
“Going to the rim. Shooting the three. Great defense. Big rebounds. She just played out of her mind tonight,” Nickerson said. “Not out of her mind because she is capable of that, but it was impressive.”
Tess Baacke scored 13 for Medfield, while Annie Stanton and Naya Annigeri added 10 apiece.
For Oliver Ames, Kamryn Derba had 14 points, including four 3-pointers, and Sarah Hilliard added 13 points.
Oliver Ames was in range early, despite falling behind. But in the second quarter, Medfield got triples from Annigeri — who is just a freshman — and Stanton to help build its lead to 29-17.
Although OA pulled tighter with an early three from Derba to start the third quarter, Medfield pulled away. The Warriors buried back-to-back threes from Kittredge and Annigeri.
Kittredge had 10 points in the third quarter alone, and finished with a pretty spin move and bucket as her team ended the frame with a 52-32 lead.
“I just really tried to do everything that is available to me,” Kittredge said. “If the drive is open, I drove. If it was my shot, I took a shot. It’s not that I chose to do each one, just try to do what was best for my team in that moment, and try to score.”
The game started on the right foot for Medfield. Kittredge sank that trey, and after an Annigeri drive, Medfield owned a 9-1 lead.
As it did all night, Oliver Ames battled back, and Hilliard’s basket down low brought the Tigers to within 11-8.
But Medfield never flinched. The Warriors retook the momentum on a Kittredge basket, and Medfield held a 15-8 lead.
“It felt close the whole way,” Nickerson said. “They’re a tough team. You can put up points quick. You see their range out there. You can’t sit back, and I felt like at the end in the fourth quarter we started to try not to lose instead of trying to win the game. They came crawling back in. Cut it to 13. It felt like it was two. We had some big possessions at the very end there where we got a layup on a backdoor cut. Got some rebounds, some longer possessions, and kind of soaked the clock away.”