Schools

Clash of Division 2 Girls' Basketball Powers

Medfield gets its chance to see how it stacks up to defending Division 2 State Champion Oliver Ames tonight in Rebel Hoop Classic Championship.

Girls' Basketball:

Oliver Ames (12-5, 11-3) vs. Medfield (20-1, 18-0)
Walpole High School, Walpole,  7:30 p.m.

This game might as well be a state tournament match-up.

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The Medfield High School girls' basketball team (20-1, 18-0) takes on Oliver Ames of North Easton (12-5, 11-3) tonight (7:30) in Walpole for the Rebel Hoop Classic championship game. 

Medfield, the top team in Division 2 this season, understands the challenge at hand against Oliver Ames.

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"This will be a very tough match-up," said Warriors' head coach Mark Nickerson. "Oliver Ames is the defending state champions and are playing very well right now.  They beat Walpole [Tuesday] 59 - 36."

Despite being the defending Division 2 state champions, Ames' coach Elaine Clement-Holbrook is giving due respect to the Warriors' this season.

"[Medfield's] the number one team in Division Two," Clement-Holbrook told Easton Patch after Tuesday's win over Walpole. "They play extraordinarily tough man-to-man defense. They don’t give you any easy looks. They’re going to be up in the passing lane. They press – they just commit to the ball and take away the whole back court. They’re going to commit people to the ball. We just want to make sure that we time our cuts to the passes and just don’t panic."

The Warriors dispatched Dighton-Rehoboth Regional,69-31, Tuesday to advance to tonight's championship game.  

"We controlled the game from beginning to end," Nickerson said. "We went up 23-5 after one and 44-16 at half. Our starters did not play in the second half."

Hillary Collins led the Warriors with 11 points in the first half, Kate Wasley, Maddie Bouchard and Abby Johnson each added eight.

Prediction: This is as good a test as the Warriors will face this season and will serve as a good measuring stick heading into the state tournament to gauge how good Medfield is at this point of the season. The Warriors are balanced on both sides of the ball and can beat their opponents in a variety of ways, but it all starts with the defense. Oliver Ames is well aware of this and will try to counter with its high-scoring offense and beating Medfield to rebounds. This game should be a fantastic match-up and one that should remain close throughout 32 minutes as both teams will be delivering their best punch to prove superiority in Division 2. Will it be this year's top team in Medfield, or the defending champs in Oliver Ames to win the Rebel Hoop Championship? I have not picked against the Medfield High girls' team all season, and won't do it here. Call it a hunch, but I like Medfield in this game to take down an extremely talented Ames' squad and make a statement. Medfield to win.

Smith's season prediction record: 54-14


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