LYNN — The Lynn English girls basketball team didn’t disappoint in its return to the court Friday. In their first game since becoming members of the Greater Boston League, the Bulldogs dominated GBL foe Medford to earn a 52-31 win at the Paul Cavanagh Gymnasium.
But just returning to their home court at all was enough for English coach Mackenzie Charles and his group.
“It has been a long road,” Charles said. “(Friday) was kind of an emotional day because not a lot of people know how hard and how big of a fight it was just to get back in this gym. It was just special to get back in here and see the kids enjoying themselves and playing basketball.”
It was a group effort that got the Bulldogs the win in their home opener. Every single English player got in the game at some point with all 12 scoring at least one point or grabbing at least one rebound.
“We lost a good group of seniors last year and lost another one of our better players in the offseason,” Charles said. “So I think coming into this season everybody knows it’s going to be a collective effort. For us to be successful we’re going to have to create turnovers, get on fast breaks and take a lot of layups. We think we have a group that can do that.”
Maddy Laurino led the way for English with 13 points. Rosie Chheang scored 10 points and Jarieles Perez added eight. Jaeleigh Perry scored four points and had a team-high seven rebounds, while Nia Sams scored four points with four rebounds.
Defense was the name of the game for English, with Medford only scoring seven points in the entire first half. Both teams got off to a slow start, but English finally got out to a six-point run capped off by a steal from Arsema Gebreyesus and an and-one from Laurino. The Bulldogs took a 10-2 lead into the second quarter.
The steals started to pile up for English from there. Junior Kelsey McNeil led the way with four steals and the Bulldogs started to find their groove, heading into the half with a 21-7 lead.
“We want to put a lot of pressure on you, full court, half court,” Charles said. “I saw that Medford had around 59 points against Everett the other night, so I knew we had to be on them. To hold them to the points that we did, I thought that was a good job.”
Medford’s offense started to show some life with a few small runs to start the second half but a pair of 3-pointers from Laurino and one each from Chheang and Perez helped keep the Bulldog lead intact. English led 39-15 heading into the fourth quarter.
Medford controlled most of the fourth, but Chheang broke the run with an offensive rebound and layup and Perez hit a 3-pointer to shut the door on any hopes of a Medford comeback late in the fourth.
The Bulldogs (1-0) are at Revere Wednesday (4).
“We have a lot of things to clean up,” Charles said. “We only had two weeks, no fall leagues, nothing. So we have a lot to clean up but I loved our effort. I thought the effort was great. If we can start with good effort we’re going in the right direction.”
