NORTH ANDOVER – Nobody had to tell Alan Hibino what his Andover High girls basketball team was up against in the 2025 Commonwealth Motors Christmas Classic championship game.
He was still licking his wounds from last year’s opening round Christmas Classic game against the same Natick High girls.
“We were down 50-10 at the half last year. Trust me, we knew what we were in for,” said Hibino. “This is an elite team and program.”
While a year later Andover trailed the Natick girls by just three points at halftime, the Red Hawks took over the next 16 minutes, mostly on the defensive side en route to a convincing, 57-41, win over the Warriors.
“That’s a really good team, especially on defense,” said Andover senior Kiera Lenihan, who was named on the All-Tournament team. “They are all over you. They press all of the time. It took us a while to relax a little bit, but once we did we got back in the game. I know we lost, but we showed some mental toughness.”
Andover entered the game without its top ball-handler, junior point guard Elizabeth LaRovere, who was hurt in the semifinal win over Bridgewater-Raynham.
And it showed. To use lingo that Hibino understands, as the school’s girls tennis coach, the Warriors had more than their share of unforced errors with 22 turnovers.
“Their speed and aggressiveness definitely affected us,” said Hibino, whose team dropped to 3-1. “And it’s not just one or two girls. They have numbers and they all are athletes. We were able to settle down a bit, especially in the second quarter, but after that? It was tough.”
Natick jumped to a double-digit lead with a 9-0 run after Andover closed it to 25-23, and from there the Warriors were chasing a 10-point deficit the rest of the game.
While Natick’s sensational six-foot sophomore Kayla Dunlap, the tournament MVP, only scored nine points, she had five steals and three blocks to go with her five assists.
Andover, though, got an A+ performance from their six-foot sophomore center, Haley Magenheim, who led all-scorers with 16 points. She also had nine rebounds and a tournament-high six blocked shots.
Magenheim deservedly took home the tournament’s Ted Boudreau Sixth Player Award.
“Haley’s getting better and better every game,” said Coach Hibino. “We have high hopes for her the rest of this season.”
Natick coach Oryx Cohen was not ecstatic about the first half, but everything after that was par for the course for his Red Hawks team, now 7-0.
“We were scared and nervous in the first half, which was the worst half of this early season,” said Cohen. “We talked about that at halftime. And like our girls always seem to do, they responded. We played so much better on both ends in the second half; played creative basketball and didn’t give them many easy opportunities.”
One of the many nice stories for Andover this week was freshman Brooklyn Murray, who easily could’ve passed for a middle school student. On Monday she played in the JV Jamboree Tournament at Methuen High and a day later she got key minutes, scoring four points, in the Christmas Tournament championship game.
“This is the best tournament around,” said Hibino. “Look at the experience Brooklyn got. One day she’s playing JV, the next day she looks like she belongs in a big-time varsity game. I love this tournament.”
Cohen said the one-hour drive for each way for the three tournament games in four days was more than worth it.
“This is the best run tournament in New England, by far,” he said. “It’s not only high-end competition, but everything is so well organized and this gym at Merrimack is fantastic.”
Natick 57, Andover 41
At Lawler Arena, Merrimack College
Score by quarters:
Andover 9-11-12-9–41
Natick 10-13-18-16–57
Andover: Emery Pereira 1-0-2, Kallie Martin 4-0-12, Keira Lenihan 0-2-2, Haley Magenheim 8-0-16, Samantha Ross 2-0-4, Mai Vidoni 0-1-1, Rileigh Roux 0-0-0, Brooklyn Murray 2-0-4, Totals 17-3-41
Natick: Williams 3-4-10, Curran 2-0-6, Pole 3-4-10, Dunlap 4-0-9, McMahon 3-3-9, Totals 15-11-57
3-pointers: A — Martin 4; N — Curran 2, Dunlap