LOWELL — Trailing 19-4 with 2:03 left in the first half, it seemed that Friday might not be Andover’s night.
In a battle of Merrimack Valley Conference top squads — both entering the game with one loss — Lowell came out of the gates on fire on both ends of the court.
But that’s when Kallie Martin decided to get out of her comfort zone.
After struggling with her perimeter shooting, the 5-foot-6 sophomore guard started driving to the hoop. That helped lead to an 8-0 run to close out the first half and a 7-0 run to open the third. Martin then knocked down two free throws with 0:27 left, Lowell missed a shot in the final seconds and Andover escaped with a gritty 30-28 win.
“We were slow and needed to pick up the pace a little bit,” said Martin about the run in the second quarter which began with freshman Lexi Linsey connecting on a pair of three-pointers.
“I started driving to the basket more to give us more energy and it ended up working,” she added. “When your shots aren’t falling, that’s what you’ve got to do — drive to the hoop.”
Early on, Andover (13-1) had a difficult time trying to contain Lowell’s Deborah Kisekka, arguably the best player in the entire conference, who also scored all of the team’s points in the second half.
“We knew that we had to shut her down and the rest of us had to box out,” said Martin. “Lowell is very good with offensive rebounds, so we just had to box them out and grab the rebounds.”
Andover coach Alan Hibino raved about the toughness of her squad after the victory.
“Lowell came out great and was up 19-4. We just had to chip away chip, chip away,” said Hibino. “It’s good to be able to play well-coached, top notch competition. We haven’t played a close game in quite a while. Coming here for the first time since 2023 and to come out of here with a win is good, we’ll take it. Credit to Lowell. Their defensive pressure is something we haven’t seen in a while. We were missing shots and struggling with fouls. Credit to our girls for bearing down, making a few adjustments and coming out with the win today.”
With injuries to two key players, Hibino said Martin and several others have been asked to step up their game, and certainly delivered when it counted.
“We ask Kallie to do a lot of different things this year. When we lose our point guard, and another freshman who has been out for a while, we had to adjust on the fly,” said the coach. “She made a couple of big plays. She did a nice job spearheading the defensive effort. She was an intricate part of that, too (as well as her offensive production).”
Linsey ended with a team high 15 points and Martin finished with 10.
“We went into the locker room (at halftime) and knew what we had to do,” said Martin. “We came out (in the second half) with more energy, played as a team and that’s how we pulled it off.”
Andover 30, Lowell 28
Andover: Lexi Linsey 5-3-15, Kallie Martin 4-2-10, Haley Magenheim 1-1-3, Mia Vidoni 1-0-2. Totals: 11-6-30.
Lowell: Deborah Kisekka 4-9-17, Quinn McDonald 2-0-4, Mikaela Da Conceicao 2-0-5, Jeneasia Richardson 1-0-2. Totals: 9-9-28.