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Westford tops Central to capture Christmas Tourney title

Thursday, April, 30 By Mac Cerullo

NORTH ANDOVER — Despite a valiant second half effort, the Central Catholic girls just couldn’t dig themselves out of an early hole.

Trailing 30-16 at halftime, Central (3-2) scratched and clawed its way back into contention throughout the second half, but ultimately it wasn’t enough as Westford Academy (5-0) held on for the 55-43 win in the Commonwealth Motors Christmas Classic girls championship game.

“I think we played really solid defense and then we’d give up an offensive rebound and they got a quick put-back, or we just had a lapse on defense,” said Central coach Casey Grange. “So we need to play defense every possession and then we have to move the ball on offense.” 

Early on Central struggled to get its offense going against Westford’s zone defense. While the Raiders couldn’t get their shots to fall, Westford seemingly couldn’t miss, especially from behind the arc. The result was a 14-point halftime lead.

For all the trouble Central had in the first half, however, the third quarter was a complete reversal. The Raiders started to break down the Westford zone with quick ball movement around the perimeter, with one noteworthy play punctuated by a quick one-two pass into the paint, where sophomore Katie Kirsch finished a layup with authority.

Meanwhile, the Raiders were gritty on defense, swarming the Westford offense and using their full-court press to force at least a half dozen turnovers. Nicole Elbeery in particular was excellent on both sides of the ball, scoring a season-high 17 points in the process.

Central was able to cut the deficit to 40-31 going into the fourth, but at the end, Central had no answer for Westford’s Angela Alibrandi. She took control in the fourth and finished with a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds. 

If it wasn’t Alibrandi, it was Westford junior Emily Bramanti, the cousin of former Andover High boys star Joe Bramanti and current Golden Warriors girls guard Gia Bramanti. Emily led the Grey Ghosts with 17 points and was a perfect 9-for-9 from the free throw line, hitting several late to snuff out any hopes of a Central comeback.

“I think you have to give a lot of credit to Westford,” Grange said.

“They came prepared, they knew how to expose our weaknesses and I think that’s exactly what happened. But we didn’t give up and I think we fought hard to the very end and we learned a lot of lessons going forward.”

Elbeery and Kirsch were each selected to the All-Tournament team, as was Andover’s Jillian Webber and Westford’s Bramanti and Alibrandi, who was named Tournament MVP. North Andover sophomore Emily Sifferlen received the Ted Boudreau 6th Man Award.

Central will look to rebound when it faces Tewksbury on the road on Jan. 5.