Stoughton 6th Grade Girls’ Travel Basketball Captures Thanksgiving Tournament Championship

Submitted to Stoughton Patch:

The 6th grade Stoughton girls’ travel basketball team entered the New England Xposure Thanksgiving Classic at Stonehill College over Thanksgiving weekend (Nov. 25 and 26) with modest expectations, and came home with the big prize. 

There were some very talented squads entered into the tournament, and this was the first live action for the 6th grade girls’ team this year.  The team finished last year as the , and have been moved to Division 1 for the upcoming year. 

Friday’s round robin action had them starting with a very tough Braintree team (16-0 in 2010).  The girls fought hard, but came up short to open the tournament. 

After losing 37-23 to Braintree, they finished Friday’s preliminary action by beating Brockton 47-31. 

On Saturday, they arrived as the #5 seed out of 10 teams, facing a “win or go home” situation.  

Stoughton opened against Easton and easily came away with a 31-8 victory.  A total team effort to get the day started. 

From there they met Foxboro in the semi-finals. Foxboro was 11-1 in Division 1 play last year. In their one previous meeting, Foxboro had beaten Stoughton. But this time around, Stoughton opened up a 20-4 lead in the first half and did not look back.  The final score was 44-32. 

The win put Stoughton in the finals vs. North Andover. There was some serious talent on the North Andover team, but the Stoughton girls buckled down on defense and took the tournament title home by defeating North Andover 39-33. 

The champions got to name four players to the tournament All-Star team, and name the 6th grade tournament MVP.  The All-Stars were: Jordan Motley, Valerie Whalen, Asiah Dingle, and Gianna DeNapoli. The tourney MVP was Valerie Whalen.  

The remainder of the squad all pitched into each victory.  Those players included Taylor Levine, Meghan Foley, Allyssa Cole, Caitlyn Carreiro, Cassie Lamb, Lauren Berteletti, Gina Carafa, and Alex Soto.

Keith Levine and Jim Whalen coached the team.

As a result, the Stoughton squad has earned a bid to the end of the year tournament to battle it out for the best 6th grade team in the state. Regardless of how the regular season plays out, this team will get an invite to the tournament.