The Saugus girls basketball team is 8-3 under new leadership as Joseph Lowe has taken over this year from former coach Mark Schruender. Despite the change in coaching, the Sachems are finding their form and performing well as of late.
“I’m super happy to be back in Saugus. I was on the boys side for a while, but just being in the building that you’re comfortable with I think is overlooked by a lot of people when they get head coaching jobs,” Lowe said. “The group of girls we have are great. The kids want to get better and love to compete. It has been a breath of fresh air.”
Lowe has admitted the team needed time to adjust to his style which in some ways contrasts with Schruender. Especially since most of the team has played under Schruender for most of their careers.
“10 games in, I think they’re starting to get it. But some of these seniors have had Mark [Schruender], who’s a great coach, as a fifth, sixth, seventh travel coach, been in his clinics, and have been playing under him for a long time,” Lowe said. “For the kids, I think it was an adjustment for them. Our styles are different, I’m a bit louder than Mark and a little bit more pointed.”
Even with the new system, Lowe has praised his team for accepting his new philosophy and working hard to excel.
“The girls have done a great job and I appreciate their understanding that I am different, but the goals are the same,” Lowe said. “I’ve tried to keep some of the practice stuff and keep some of the things Mark has done that I also believe in to try and help with the transition. I think they’ve done a great job adjusting.”
When asked what is the main difference between his system and Schruender, Lowe mentioned he wants to push the ball when possible.
“I try to emphasize that I want transition shots. I don’t want to have to run half-court sets. I want them to push the ball up and if someone is open, shoot it,” Lowe said. “I want the team to force specific matchups and get them moving.”
And when the offense is flowing, they’re hard to stop. Guards like Peyton DiBiasio and Ashleen Escobar are a handful for any defense to stick in front of them.
“For us, I want to try and get Peyton and Ashleen on a big. Our guards do a great job attacking the mismatch and drawing fouls,” Lowe said.
Lowe praised DiBiasio’s performance against Winthrop and how she responded after a tough week of practices leading up to the game.
“People don’t realize how good Peyton really is. She’s only a sophomore. Her point total is a little bit lower this year. I was on her the last few practices and her response has been incredible,” Lowe said. “With the clock running down, she gets a screen and buried an NBA range three and probably got fouled too, but she goes straight back on defense. She has to play these games where all five players are focused on her. I was very proud of her to see her develop some leadership as a sophomore.”
If the mismatch doesn’t occur, Saugus has a plethora of shooters that can hit from anywhere on the court.
“Defenses have to pick their poison when they face us. If you don’t want to sag off Ella [Castle], Taylor [Deleidi], Ashleigh [Moore], Ana [Silva] then Peyton and Ashleen are going to get to the rim,” Lowe said. “If you do try and double down and focus on the guards, Peyton and Ashleen have done a great job of finding our shooters. We like that people have to think about us. We have so many shooters which is a luxury as a coach.”
The Sachems have a few goals in mind, the first is to raise a banner in their gym.
“We want to clinch the NEC Lynch division which we are currently 0.5 games up,” Lowe said. “We want a home playoff game. I told them that being the only team in the school that’s playing, everyone is going to go to the game. We want this for our seniors and to host a playoff game and maybe win a few games would be a great send-off for them.”
