Girls' basketball notebook: In memory of loved ones, Lincoln-Sudbury teams up in Hoops 4 Hope

Boston Globe

28-01-2025

The Warriors (10-2), ranked 18th in this week's Globe Top 20, earned a 46-40 win over Bridgewater-Raynham and raised $1,800 in the process. They'll distribute the money evenly to the National Brain Tumor Society and the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation.
They also created a 'Hope Wall' outside the gym, where people could sign and leave notes and names of family members and friends who have battled all types of cancer.
Get Starting Point
A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Enter Email
Sign Up
While it was certainly an emotional evening, it wasn't necessarily a somber one. The senior Schwartz and the two juniors know their relatives would have wanted them to continue to play with joy, even in their absence.
Advertisement
'It wasn't about despair and sadness,' Lincoln-Sudbury coach
Howie Landau
said. 'It was about happiness, and the emotion of bringing the community together.'
When Poland, Wallerstein, and members of the L-S volleyball team conducted an event for breast cancer awareness last fall, they decided they should try to do something similar for basketball. With their shared experiences as a driving force, they worked diligently to launch the plan.
'It's definitely affected us as a team and a program, so I thought this would be a really special moment,' Poland said.
Landau was completely for the idea, and together they started to spread the word. He's grateful to the Lincoln-Sudbury community and administration, plus coach
Cheryl Seavey
and the Bridgewater-Raynham program, for helping to turn it into a reality.
L-S athletic director
Dan Lee
said he's always impressed at the initiative and social awareness of the school's student-athletes. He said the planning of this night was student-driven and is a wonderful example of how student-athletes can use the platform of sport to bring initiatives to the broader community.
Advertisement
'What makes the Lincoln-Sudbury community special is its unwavering spirit of unity and compassion, exemplified through events like Hoops 4 Hope,' Lee said. 'These initiatives reflect the heart of our community — where people come together not just to raise awareness, but to actively support and honor causes that make a lasting impact.'
Schwartz, who has raised money through the cancer research organization 'A Shot For Life' with her brother,
Ben
, is grateful to have multiple communities that provide hope. She continues to think of her father every step of the way as she gives back.
'Playing basketball kind of became a way for us to keep his memory alive,' Schwartz said.
Schwartz, averaging 12.6 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 4 assists per game, said her father used to love Eminem's song 'Lose Yourself.' He played it before he got chemo and had surgery as a way to get himself in the right frame of mind, and she still thinks of it often before she competes.
Lincoln-Sudbury's Evie Schwartz, (32), pictured dishing a pass against Bridgewater-Raynham, lost her father, Ken, to brain cancer in 2021. 'Playing basketball kind of became a way for us to keep his memory alive,' she said.
Barry Chin/Globe Staff
Wallerstein, contributing 9.5 points, 8.1 rebounds, and 1.7 blocks a night, wears No. 21 in honor of her sister. She designed the T-shirts for the event and made sure to set the tone Friday.
'When my sister was going through everything, she was never sad,' Wallerstein said. 'She was always upbeat. I want to make sure everyone on the team is smiling and having a fun time, even though it was an emotional night.'
Landau said Wallerstein's mother,
Elin
, told him that Alice's 3-year-old sister,
Iris
, got really excited in the crowd when she heard Lea's name.
Poland, averaging 12.7 points, 8.1 rebounds, and 3.6 assists, has seen the way her grandfather's death affected her mother. She views basketball as an outlet to 'let everything out' and used the event as a way to honor his legacy.
Advertisement
All three mothers and all three players have bonded through shared grief. When Schwartz, Poland, and Wallerstein each made the team, their separate but overlapping experiences were critical in bringing them together.
As devastating as each loss has been, the heartbreak they've endured has helped them grasp the fragility of life and the value of family.
'We're all close even without it, but it's brought us closer,' Wallerstein said.
Lincoln-Sudbury's Sarah Poland, (22), drawing a host of Bridgewater-Raynham defenders on a drive, views basketball as an outlet to 'let everything out,' and used the Hoops 4 Hope event as a way to honor her grandfather's legacy.
Barry Chin/Globe Staff
Alice Wallerstein (21), driving through a B-R double team, said her late sister, Lea, was never sad. She "was always upbeat. I want to make sure everyone on the team is smiling and having a fun time, even though it was an emotional night.'
Barry Chin/Globe Staff
Courtside chatter
▪ An impact player on varsity since she first stepped on the court at Notre Dame (Hingham) as a seventh grader,
Ava Orlando
joined the notable 2,000-point club with her 31-point, 10-assist, 6-steal performance in Friday's 79-44 nonleague win over Longmeadow. Only 81 other players in state have reached the lofty total.
'It was great to see my teammates so happy for me,' said Orlando, who surpassed the milestone with a second-quarter 3-pointer in transition. 'Hopefully we can continue to make memories with our tournament run.'
Orlando can think on a dime mid-dribble, which is how she generates scoring.
'I let the opponent guess what I'm doing next,' Orlando said. 'Just with my overall IQ, knowing when to go and not to go, and moving the ball around me plays into it.'
On Tuesday, NDA will honor Orlando before the Cougars take on Fontbonne at 6:30 p.m.
▪ With five key players sidelined, Blue Hills is making up for its losses with a 'next-person up' approach. Freshman center
Sarah Michel
, for one, is playing like a veteran.
The 5-foot-10-inch underclassman is leading the Warriors (12-0) with 16.9 points and 11 rebounds per game.
Advertisement
'She kind of does it all for us right now,' coach
Nicole Flynn
said.
In a Mayflower Athletic Conference win over Bristol-Plymouth last Tuesday, Michel netted a career-high 27 points. In the following two games, she combined for another 32.
'She definitely scores really well down low, but there are other times where she'll rebound and go on a fastbreak,' said Flynn. 'She has the ability to go coast to coast, and she definitely is someone who the bigger the game is, the better she performs.'
▪ With four returning starters, plus the first reserve off the bench, Bourne (12-1) sits atop the South Coast Conference.
Coach
Steve Wenzel
has a number of options, with senior captains
Paige Meda
(16.5 points per game) and
McKinley Wenzel
(12.5 ppg), his daughter, spearheading the operation.
'We play a multitude of offenses depending on what we're seeing,' Wenzel said. 'We can spread, high-screen roll, or we can run sets, the old-school two in the posts and three guards dump it in. I have some high-level IQ forwards, so our inside-out game is pretty solid.'
Junior bigs
Raeghan Blake
and
Nola Timo
average 8 rebounds per game, and junior guard
Aubrey France
averages 6 steals, leading the league.
'From tryouts to launching the season, we've really been ahead of schedule,' Wenzel said. 'That's really been the key.'
Games to watch
Tuesday, No. 3 Woburn at Reading, 7 p.m.
— A matchup of the top two teams in the Middlesex League's Liberty Division.
Friday, No. 11 Braintree at Walpole, 6 p.m.
— The Timberwolves have had their moments, but the hosts will need to be at their best in this Bay State-Herget showdown.
Advertisement
Friday, No. 15 Pembroke at No. 16 North Quincy
— In a stacked Patriot-Fisher division, two of the top three teams go head-to-head in this top-20 matchup.
Friday, Framingham at No. 14 Natick, 6:30 p.m.
— The Flyers have stood out with wins against Lincoln-Sudbury and Natick early in the season, making this an intriguing matchup.
Saturday, No. 8 Dartmouth at No. 4 St. Mary's, 7 p.m.
— This nonleague contest features two of the state's most prolific squads.
Correspondent Graham Dietz contributed to this story.
Trevor Hass can be reached at