After successful seasons and strong starts to their state tournament campaigns, both of Old Rochester Regional High School’s basketball teams saw their seasons come to an unfortunate end last week. After capping off the regular season as South Coast Conference champions, ORR’s boys’ and girls’ teams went into the MIAA Division 3 playoffs seeded 12th and 9th, respectively.
After a strong start to the postseason on March 3 against Quabbin, the Lady Bulldogs faced the eighth-seeded East Bridgewater in a Round of 16 matchup on March 8, when their playoff run was stopped in its tracks in a 55-51 defeat. Logan Fernandes and Maggie Brogioli performed well in their final game, scoring 18 points and 13 points, respectively.
The boy’s team, despite having a lower seed than their female counterparts, were able to make it further in the tournament.
On March 8, ORR faced off against fifth-ranked Swampscott in a high-scoring game that came down to the wire. Braden Yeomans scored 27 points, while Steven Morrell scored 23. In the end, however, it was Sawyer Fox who scored 15 total points in the game and hit the shot that sealed the 91-89 win for the Bulldogs in double overtime.
The Round of 16 win set the Bulldogs up for an elite-eight game against number-four seeded Norton. Unfortunately, their momentum was brought to a screeching halt in the game at Wheaton College on March 12. While Liam Geraghty was able to score 12 points, Steven Morrell scored 10 and Sawyer Fox scored 9, the game ended with ORR in a 20-point deficit.
Down 42-34 going into the fourth quarter, the Bulldogs were unable to stop the Lancers. Norton went on to score 17 more points in the last quarter, while ORR could only add 5. The game ended with a score of 59-39, as the winter sports season at Old Rochester came to an end.
Indoor Track
Old Rochester’s Colby Gross competed in the 400 meters at New Balance Indoor Nationals on March 11 at the Armory Track & Field Center in New York. Gross placed 44th in the preliminaries with a time of 51.95 seconds.
Sports Roundup
By Matthew Curry