PROVINCETOWN — Before the Provincetown IB Schools girls basketball team’s 31-25 triumph in a home match on Jan. 23 against the Dennis-Yarmouth Dolphins, the players enacted four rituals that set the tone for the game.
The 6th-, 7th-, and 8th-grade girls dropped their backpacks and winter coats on the bleachers at the school gym. Giggles bounced among them as they scanned the crowd for parents, friends, and maybe even potential crushes. They raked ponytails into place, double-rolled the waistbands of their orange basketball shorts, and lobbed casual warm-up shots toward the hoop.
When the Dolphins arrived, the Fishermen disappeared into the locker room. Out of view, they hyped each other up, full of purpose and nervous energy.
Back on the court, the official warm-up commenced. The players were buoyed by applause from some three dozen parents, siblings, friends, and teachers, who yelled “Let’s go, Provincetown!” in unison when the feeling struck. Beneath the banner honoring Provincetown’s 1966-1967 girls team as the Southeastern Mass. tournament champions, this year’s squad ran the court’s perimeter and moved through drills punctuated by celebratory dances. When a ball swished through the net, the shooter dabbed (a dance move) or threw a fist into the air.
Finally, they settled cross-legged on the polished gym floor, forming a semicircle around their coach, Chelsea Roderick. As she always does before a game starts, Roderick asked her team to set a goal. It was modest: four baskets, eight points. Total.
The Fishermen had won two games and lost four since their season started on Dec. 2.
“Whether we win or lose this game,” Roderick told them, “if we meet that goal, we win.” By the time the game ended, they had almost quadrupled their hoped-for scoring total.
Dolphins 6th-grader Tayna Gordon bested Fishermen 7th-grader Amelia Baker in the tipoff, but possession switched almost immediately. Within the first minute, Fishermen 6th-grader Lola Schiffer-Kehou attempted a shot, and a foul gave her teammate, 7th-grader Bella Wirthwein, two free throws. She missed both, a fresh henna tattoo flashing with the flick of her forearm.
The Dolphins were first on the board. Gordon scored, and just two minutes later, her teammate Joyce Durfee followed up with another basket. Then came the Fishermen’s comeback: point guard Quinn Ivey banked a layup and reset the game’s rhythm. Schiffer-Kehou soon followed, finding a pocket to shoot near the hoop.
At the end of the first quarter, the teams huddled, after which two cheers echoed across the gym. “One, two, three — P’town!” yelled the Fishermen. “One, two, three — D-Y!” answered the Dolphins.
The second quarter unfolded with the teams alternating baskets: Baker, Ivey, Gordon (twice), Fishermen 7th-grader Hattie Lawless, and the Dolphins’ Adriana Idoria. When Roderick called out “line,” four players spread along the free-throw line. At “stack,” they lined up on the baseline. The whistle chirped, and the girls scattered, finding pockets for passes.
There was a looseness to the action: jumping jacks to block passes, shoulder-level dribbling, and frequent traveling that the referee allowed. When he did blow his whistle, his rotating fists were more like a dance move than a referee’s call.
At halftime, the buzzer’s call caused heads on the court and in the bleachers to turn all at once to the scoreboard: the game was tied at 14-14.
Their cheeks flushed and foreheads sweaty, the girls chugged Gatorade and sipped water. Roderick shed her jacket. The stakes felt higher. If the first half was the rehearsal, the second half promised something more. The girls were no longer just warming up.
“I think everyone got motivated as soon as we made a few baskets,” said Wirthwein. “The teamwork and our rebounds were especially good today.”
The Fishermen scored first in the third quarter, but the Dolphins countered. The quarter ended with the Fishermen leading 19-17. By the final quarter, the girls’ focus had sharpened, and eight minutes unfolded in a flurry. The Dolphins’ Idoria scored on a free throw. Her teammate, 7th-grader Bella McCollem, added two more points, but Lawless answered immediately with a basket of her own. Schiffer-Kehou scored and so did Wirthwein.
In the last three minutes, the Dolphins fought back to narrow a five-basket gap, with Riley Silva and Durfee each scoring, but the Fishermen held their ground and as the final buzzer sounded, prevailed with a six-point win.
“I thought we all played really well,” said Lawless. “I was proud of our commitment.” Making a basket was also nice, she said.
The Dolphins were proud of their effort but saw room for improvement. “We did really well with passing today and breaking the defense apart when we could get open,” said Idoria.
“It was challenging,” said Durfee. “A couple of the people on the Provincetown team are kind of good.”
High-fives followed. Two lines of girls collided, hands slapping together in mutual respect. Then, the teams retreated to the bleachers, their identities as opponents briefly suspended as they settled in to watch the boys’ game in the customary doubleheader.
“That was probably one of the best games we’ve had as a team,” Coach Roderick told the Independent.
Following this win, the Fisherman played against Monomoy on Jan. 27, and though they lost, the game was tight: 13-16. “They played so hard,” said Roderick. “The fact that we got better is amazing.”
The team faces Nauset Middle School at home on Feb. 3 at 4 p.m.
