Girls’ basketball lost to Natick 62-43 at home last Friday night. In response to the countless turnovers, head coach Mo Hamel said that the team needs to work on their ball handling and “just executing what we worked on in games,” she said.

Both teams got off to rough offensive starts in the first quarter, combining for four points in the first three minutes of the game. Several minutes into the quarter, Natick and North each made several field goals to offset the sluggish start. Before finishing the first quarter, Natick scored 14 more points with a 23-4 lead.

“On defense, the effort was there,” according to senior captain Izzie Bledsoe along with seniors Sarah Hoffman and Kelley Manley. “But we were straying from our defensive principles which allowed them to get easy baskets and is something we’ve worked on a lot in recent practices,” Bledsoe said.

Natick carried their momentum into the second quarter, scoring 15 more points and increasing their lead to 38-12.

According to Bledsoe, “Natick definitely wasn’t a great game for us. We were taking good shots but they weren’t falling which is always hard to recover from.”

North improved in the third and fourth quarter, winning the time of possession battle.

When reflecting on his team’s performers, Natick’s head coach Dan Hinnenkamp said, “I thought our girls came out and played very good basketball. We knew they came off with a big win in overtime last game so Newton North had the momentum going.”

North will face Needham on Tuesday, Feb. 12 at North.