Nauset Girls Basketball Holds Off Monomoy In Overtime

NORTH EASTHAM – When the stakes intensified and the pressure ramped up, Nauset freshman Jazmiley Rivas Valerio was ready for her moment. 

The freshman scored a game-tying layup with eight seconds remaining to force overtime, then scored four of her 11 points in the extra frame to help Nauset hold off Monomoy for a 40-38 overtime win Friday night. 

 “I was like, ‘Oh my god, I hope I don’t miss this,’” Rivas Valerio said of the game-tying basket. “That was very exciting and very special.”

 Monomoy (0-3) took a 23-17 deficit into the fourth quarter before tying the game at 24 with 4:29 remaining following a 3-pointer by junior Kiley Mawn (13 points). The Sharks took a 31-29 advantage after a go-ahead triple by senior Jojo Ready (13 points) with 22 seconds to play, but Rivas Valerio answered with her layup on the next Nauset (1-2) possession to even the score at 31.

Ready missed a last-second shot from close range to send the game into overtime, and Nauset quickly garnered a lead before holding on after Monomoy failed to get a shot off on its final possession. 

“To have two days of practice to get ready for this one, I thought overall we had a good game,” Monomoy coach Craig Andrews said. “We shortened up our bench a little, but we’re a young team. We have two seniors, two juniors, seven sophomores, two ninth graders and two eighth-graders. 

“Autumn (Escher) stepped up, Corinne (Pina) stepped up, and the starting five played their buns off. It was an awesome effort, but there are some things that we need to clean up.”

Nauset was led by freshman forward Brynn Kew (12 points), sophomore Myla Guerrier (10 points) and sophomore Amari Brace (7 points) in addition to the big performance by Rivas Valerio, who was routinely able to get past the Sharks’ defense for easy looks at the rim.

Nauset coach Jean Leyton said she was proud of the way the Warriors responded under pressure during crunch time.

“That’s when we usually fall apart,” Leyton said. “I think having Brynn up to help get the ball in took some pressure off Amari. Our passing needs to be better, but it worked tonight.

“I was very happy with their composure and their ability to play together for most of the night.”

It was a thrilling first win for the Warriors, who had suffered losses to Middleboro (61-16) and Martha’s Vineyard (39-30) to open the season.

“It was a little nerve-wracking because we kept tying, then we’d go down and go back up,” Rivas Valerio said. “We worked really hard and I’m happy we were able to get our first win.”

It also marked the program’s first victory in the new gymnasium at Nauset Regional High School. 

“Kudos to the middle school for letting us use it last year, because what else would we do?” Leyton asked. “This space is really nice. We share it with wrestling and track and all of the basketball teams, so it’s a lot, but we’re working out the kinks and it’s coming along.”