RHS Girls Hoop Team Loses to Classical in Overtime

The Revere High School girls basketball team came within one split second of earning a victory in its season opener.

With Revere leading by two points with 5.3 seconds left thanks to two clutch free throws by Carolina Carvalho-Bettero, Classical’s Ava Thurman dribbled the length of the court to score a basket at the buzzer and send the game into overtime

Classical outscored Revere, 4-2, in the extra sessions to win the game, 59-57.

Revere head coach Matt Willis, whose team showed tremendous heart with its second-half rally, candidly assessed his defensive strategy on the final sequence.

“Looking back, I probably should have had two of our players up a little bit closer in the backcourt to stop the ball from crossing midcourt a little bit sooner,” said Willis. “No. 10 (Thurman) was doing that all game for them. She was an excellent player. The game was being officiated very tight, so you didn’t want to fully deny her (Thurman) on the inbounds pass. She did that little Euro-step and made a heck of a play.”

Still, there were plenty of positives to take away from Revere’s first game in more than a year.

Senior guard Alana Nelson had an outstanding game and finished with a team-high 20 points. “Alana was instrumental in helping us to consistently break Classical’s full-court press and come back (from an 11-point deficit in second half),” said Willis.

Carvalho-Bettero had 18 points and 10 rebounds, including an amazing tip pass to Skyla DeSimone for a three-pointer.

DeSimone had 10 points in a solid debut to her senior season.

“I think Skyla did an outstanding job containing Thurman in our half-court defense,” said Willis.

Willis also credited Lynzie Anderson, Nina Cassinello, and Isabella Curtas-Lopera for their excellent rebounding and defense in the game.

 Revere (0-2) who fell to Everett Monday night, will be back in action against Lynn English today.

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