LYNN — Getting wins hasn’t been the easiest of tasks for the English girls basketball team this season. Tuesday night at English’s Paul Cavanagh Field House, however, saw the Bulldogs put together a winning performance they can feel good about.
English didn’t get off to an ideal start offensively but found its rhythm in time to beat visiting Salem, 46-17, for its fifth victory of the season.
“It’s always good to get a win,” English coach Mackenzie Charles said. “We’ve been struggling for a little bit. We’ve had a few losses and it was nice to stop that, but with those losses we’ve gained experience. A lot of younger girls are playing a lot and that’s good for the future of our program.”
Bulldogs captain Ely Guity led all scorers with 11 points, while Julianna Perry finished with 10 points. Off the bench, Maylin Echevarria scored 10 points and provided a key spark. Kimaniy Dorsey added five points to the win.
“This is Maylin’s first season of varsity basketball,” Charles said. “She’s getting better every single day. A lot of the issues with our young girls are about confidence. We do a lot of good things at practice but sometimes they’re intimidated when they try to execute those things in games.
“If Maylin goes to the hoop, there aren’t many girls that can stop her because of her size as a guard,” Charles added. “It was nice to see her go to the hoop with more confidence.”
Guity scored the game’s first point when she hit a free throw 15 seconds into the evening. She added a jump shot, which combined with baskets from Ravyn Rapley and Echevarria, led the Bulldogs to a 7-2 edge at the end of the first quarter.
English dominated the glass in the opening period but struggled to create quality looks.
“With a team we believe we should beat, we can’t let a team like that hang around,” Charles said. “A lot of it was our energy level. We have to fix that and improve it at the beginning of games, but I thought the level of effort increased throughout the game.”
The Witches picked themselves up in the second quarter to put English on its heels. Salem started the period on a 10-5 run to whittle English’s lead down to 12-10.
Charles called a timeout to regroup his squad and it paid dividends. The Bulldogs closed the second quarter on an 8-0 rally to carry a 20-10 lead at the midway break.
Salem opened the third quarter with a bucket to climb back to single digits. A freebie and a floater from Guity, and a pair of lay-ins from Perry pushed English’s lead to 15 at 27-12. Guity capped the quarter with a lay-in at the buzzer and the Bulldogs were running away, up 35-15, after three.
“I thought we had a really good third quarter,” Charles said. “The third quarter has been a struggle for us. I thought we had a better third quarter and played with better energy. When we create turnovers, we get layups. We settled for too many jump shots in the beginning of the game. When we stopped settling, the pace of the game got faster and that’s good for us.”
With a hefty lead on its side, English coasted through the fourth quarter to close out the win. The Bulldogs held Salem to just two points in the final period to seal the 46-17 victory.
English (5-12) visits Everett on Friday night.
