The girls basketball team at Apponequet High School has boasted an impressive record so far this season, and now the accomplished Lakers squad can add another notch to its belt: knocking the Dartmouth Indians off their undefeated hot streak. 

In a chaotic away game, full of frequent lead changes and constant turnovers on both sides, Apponequet came out ahead 50-41.

“Obviously that’s a really good team … collectively it was a great team effort,” said Apponequet head coach Trevor Gagnier. “It was one of those games we needed to be really good defensively and offensively.”

“I didn’t have us prepared well enough,” said Dartmouth head coach Brian Jalbert. “It just wasn’t our night and that’s a good team. We’ve been making mistakes for a while and when you play really good times like Apponequet, those mistakes come back to bite you.”

The Lakers picked up steam in the second half of the Jan. 26 game by consistently converting fast breaks into quick points. Dartmouth stayed in the game with reliable free-throw shooting and strong offensive rebounds, but the Apponequet lead slowly built up, accelerating in the second half. 

Apponequet may have come in with a chip on their shoulder: they started off the season with a close loss to the Indians, before building up a solid string of wins into a 12-3 overall record. 

Notably, the Lakers did not have Cecelia Levrault during the first outing, and Dartmouth coach Jalbert said Levrault caught them off guard this time: “She’s a great player.”

Gagnier said his team wasn’t ready for Dartmouth’s speed the first time around. 

“This time, we’ve seen them, we prepared a lot,” he said. 

A key part of the Lakers’ game, Gagnier said, was figuring out how to shut down star Dartmouth player Kat Cheesebro. 

“She can score a lot,” he said. “We knew she was going to be hard, we tried throwing multiple people at her.”

Apponequet plays a home game next against Fairhaven High School on Tuesday, Jan. 30.