Paige Meda did in three years what most high school players are not able to do in four. The junior guard earned her way into the exclusive 1,000-point club at Bourne High School as she reached the milestone in the regular season finale for the Lady Canalmen on Wednesday night, February 21, in a blowout win over Martha’s Vineyard at home.
Coming into the game, the high-scoring guard had 975 points to her credit. She approached the challenge a lot like her career so far, not wasting any time getting to the number she needed. Stepping to the line late in the second quarter after getting fouled on a three-pointer, Meda knocked down all three shots to earn her way to 1,000. After being honored by her teammates, friends and family, Meda went on to help her team finish off a blowout victory that saw them vanquish the Vineyard with one of the team’s most lopsided wins of the season.
In a year full of one-sided games, this one was the biggest. With Meda’s 27 points leading the way and surpassing the team total for MV, Bourne scored a 74-15 win. The win put a cap on an 18-2 regular season by BHS. The team now awaits the seeding for the upcoming Division 4 state tournament, where the Lady Canalmen should be ranked somewhere comfortably inside the top 10. The MIAA releases the pairings for the state tournaments tomorrow, with basketball being posted on the official website at 1 PM.
The rest of the scoring was spread out liberally throughout the roster. Hayley McDonald scored 12, Raeghan Blake put up 10 points and three players had six apiece.
Winterfest Champs
Holding off a comeback by a strong Dennis-Yarmouth team, the Bourne High School girls prevailed on their home floor on Tuesday afternoon, February 19, to capture the 2024 Cape Cod Winterfest championship with a 61-58 victory. Junior guard Paige Meda was named tournament MVP after great showings in both games and Raeghan Blake also earned a spot on the all-tournament team thanks to a great game against the Dolphins that saw her lead the team in scoring.
Down by 15 in the second half, the Dolphins rallied back on the strength of the sharpshooting of senior Chloe Azoff. The gunner knocked down six three-pointers in the game, with three in the fourth quarter to help her team fight back into the game. Azoff led all scorers with 27 for the afternoon.
After leading by as many as 15 in the third, Bourne entered the fourth quarter leading by 11, 49-38. That quickly began to be shaved down as Azoff got hot and helped her team close to within seven over the first three minutes of the period. After a great play by Blake in the paint pushed the lead up to nine again, Azoff hit a three with 4:22 to go to make it a six-point game.
From that point on the Dolphins were putting a serious scare in BHS, but the Lady Canalmen were able to come up with the plays that they needed to pull it out, the biggest of which was made by Aubrey France with 2:04 remaining. Bourne had a chance to push its lead back up to seven at that point, leading by a 57-52 score, but a couple of missed free throws did not help the cause. D-Y rebounded the second miss, but France stepped up to strip the ball away and took it straight in for a layup to make it 59-52.
Jaylene Pires helped to give D-Y some more life after that. Pires got to the basket for a quick layup after the France play and, after a Dolphins stop, she got to the free-throw line to knock down both and close the gap to three points with 1:06 left.
D-Y’s coaching staff then made a strategic error that proved costly in the end. With no fouls against them at that point and more than a minute on the clock, they chose to start fouling the Lady Canalmen rather than trying to get a defensive stop. The consecutive fouls finally landed Meda at the line with 25 seconds to play and she hit one of two.
D-Y called timeout and were able to get off a quick shot by Maeve Dolan with 12 seconds left to make it a two-point game. They then fouled Meda again with 9.8 seconds to go and she hit the first and missed the second, making it a three-point difference again.
Bourne’s defense denied the three-point line on the Dolphins final possession and D-Y had to call timeout again with 1.1 seconds to play to draw up a desperation play. That play nearly worked as they were able to get a great look at a three-pointer by Siena Lauze, but the shot was offline and Bourne had the win and the championship trophy.
In the first round of the tournament, Bourne turned their contest against Mashpee into a track meet from the start and were able to run past the Falcons in a lopsided game that ended in a 70-34 Lady Canalmen victory.
Guard McKinley Wenzel had her stroke going from the perimeter early on. The junior connected on three first-quarter three-pointers as Bourne jumped out to a 17-9 lead in the first eight minutes. Mashpee found success getting the ball inside to Hailey Garcia in the first, but once the Lady Canalmen were able to slow her down, the game got out of hand. Garcia scored seven of her team-best 11 points in the first quarter.
In the second quarter, the game was put away by BHS. Bourne made life very difficult for the Mashpee ball handlers and used their press to kick-start the running game. When the halftime horn finally sounded the Lady Canalmen had outscored the Falcons by a 22-2 margin in the second and pushed their lead up to 28 points.
Nivaya Jean connected on three second-half threes for the Falcons and had nine points in the game. Bourne was led by Paige Meda, who had 24, with 18 after the half. Wenzel had 17, all of which were in the first half.
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