'We're still fighting for every loose ball:' Despite loss to Walpole, Framingham girls hoop 6-2
FRAMINGHAM – The rebounding is always there. With Nina Edwards and Grace Hanna under the basket, boards are not hard to come by.
Framingham’s girls basketball team shares the scoring this season, a change from just a year ago. Allie Regan is the team’s top scorer, as she was Friday night and just after Christmas when the junior captain tallied a career-high 29 points vs. Chicopee.
But on another night, Caroline Galvani might have the hot hand. Or Stephie Regan. Or Edwards, or Hanna.
A year ago, the Flyers bid farewell to a pair of 1,000-point scorers after a 14-win season that ended with a Sweet 16 appearance. This winter, Framingham is off to a 6-2 start with a more spread-out offense.
Allie Regan leads the team with an 18-point scoring average, but isn’t the go-to scorer every night.
“All the five starters, each of them we’ve had as a leading scorer,” said coach Kristen Audet-Fucarile after Friday night’s 52-40 loss to Walpole. “We didn’t have that last year.”
Galvani (12 points per game) is the team’s second-leading scorer, the same position she held vs. Walpole when her three 3-pointers totaled nine points, just behind Allie Regan’s dozen.
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Hanna had eight points, but the Flyers had trouble scoring. Not so underneath the basket. Hanna and Allie Regan both secured eight rebounds while Edwards and Stephie Regan each had five.
The work down low contrasted a tough shooting night that saw the Flyers fall behind by 15 points on two occasions. Framingham, behind successive 3s by Galvani, clawed to within nine points late in the game.
“Tonight, the rebounding was the strongest I’ve seen,” Audet-Fucarile said. “They got down 15 and were still fighting for every loose ball. Just the sweat and energy from every single one of them, it was just impressive.”
Bella Bingham's 31 points paces Walpole vs. Framingham girls
Framingham fell behind 8-3 but led 14-13 after one quarter before the Timberwolves (5-3) scored the first 14 points of the second quarter to lead for good. Defensive pressure helped end the run when Allie Regan snapped the spurt with a basket before Hanna’s steal led an Allie Regan hoop and Walpole led 29-20 at the half.
The Timberwolves scored the first six points of the third quarter and used a career-high 31 points from Bella Bingham to earn the road victory.
Last winter, Selina Monestime, now at UAlbany, netted her 1,000th point on Jan. 13. Katie Regan, currently at Western New England University, reached quadruple digits on March 4. Those volume scorers are gone, but a solid program still exists in Framingham.
Effort, rebounding and balanced scoring are the keys.
"I don’t like losing games," Audet-Fucarile said, "but the way they fought tonight, I’m excited for the rest of the season.”
Tim Dumas is a multimedia journalist for the Daily News. He can be reached at tdumas@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @TimDumas.
This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Framingham girls basketball 6-2 despite loss to Walpole
