Photo Gallery: Benilde-St. Margaret's vs Holy Angels
When Holy Angels senior guard Grace Massaquoi stepped to the free throw line during Thursday’s game, she noticed a couple of familiar faces in the stands. They were her former teammates, including former Star guard Francesca Vascellaro, the 2021 second-team All-Metro scorer.
“It inspired me,” Massaquoi said. “It made me want to put on a show for them because I loved playing with them.”
Despite the pressure of her former teammates and a late rally by her opponent, Massaquoi and her teammates managed the pressure and held on as Holy Angels defeated the Benilde-St. Margaret’s 78-67.
Massaquoi and fellow senior Kassandra Caron have been elevated into leadership roles this season after key graduating players, such as Vascellaro, moved on from the program.
“You can’t replace players like that,” Holy Angels coach Danny Woods said. “You just develop the next group of players. You find a way to make what you have work.”
Early in Thursday’s game, the new-look Stars used a tough defensive approach to make life tough for the Red Knights. Holy Angels forced 17 first-half turnovers with an aggressive full-court defense.
“This team has a lot of defensive presence,” Massaquoi said. “Any of our players can guard all five positions on the floor.”
Massaquoi was part of the ferocious defense while being an aggressor on the offensive end. She scored 15 first-half points to finish with 32 on the night.
“Grace could play on our football team,” Woods said. “She has some of the better hands I’ve seen on an athlete. She does things on the floor that not a lot of other athletes can do.”
While Holy Angels is certainly still adjusting to a different-looking roster, Benilde-St. Margaret’s is learning to play together as a young group. The Red Knights have just two seniors on their roster. Their starting lineup on Thursday featured two sophomores, two juniors and a freshman.
As the game went on, the young Benilde-St. Margaret's group found ways to get past the full-court pressure.
“We had to stop passing to the team in the blue,” Red Knights coach Michael Swann said. “We can’t give them 20 points like that. We have to start our work earlier in the game.”
With the pressure solved, the Red Knights offense got to work and put together a furious comeback. After trailing by double digits most of the game, the lead was cut all the way to two.
As the Stars’ cushion was now gone, the strategy turned to slowing the game down and chewing clock. The strategy worked as Holy Angels held the ball and got its lead back up to 11 by the end of the game.
The Red Knights lost their third game of the season, all three coming to ranked opponents so far. On the other side, Holy Angels has now won five consecutive games with its new-look leadership.
“We’re a group learning on the fly,” Woods said. “We’ve played a tough schedule. I’m impressed with how we’ve handled these situations.”