Martlets Defeat AOF

The opportunity to play in the New Gym had the Martlets fired up for our match up against Avon Old Farms. As soon as the game tipped off, we brought high energy and a determination to win. Noticing that Avon had a significant size advantage, we quickly identified that we would need to work extra hard to secure rebounds and prevent easy scores in the paint. The whole team committed to our zone principles and did our best to limit our opponents to one shot attempt each time down the floor. While our defense was clicking, we struggled to find a flow on the offensive end of the floor and started to rely heavily on shots from outside the arc. Despite some misfires from their teammates, Finn Hocking ‘26 and Liam Hibbard ‘27 both connected on three pointers that helped keep us competitive in the first half. After a back and forth battle, we entered halftime tied at 16. In the second half, we were able to pick up our defensive intensity and converted several forced turnovers into transition layups, particularly in the closing minutes of the game. Jake Andreski ‘25 got us started with a monster off-the-backboard block on an Avon Old Farms breakaway, then Connor Gray ‘26 and Arshaan Shah ‘26 elevated our defensive intensity and helped us put the game out of reach. We were also paced by strong play from Bennett Varao ‘27 who led us in scoring with 14 points. It was a hard fought win and we had to play some of our best basketball of the season to secure the victory. We will look forward to building on today’s effort when we take on Choate this Saturday.