By Ashley Richardson

Early in the week, the Prospect Hill Academy Lady Wizards overwhelmed Salem Academy Charter by a lopsided score of 69-14 in a home contest at the Arthur D. Healey School in Somerville. A day later, the Community Charter School of Cambridge Cougars ventured over to Lexington and came away with a 39-25 decision over Minuteman Regional High School. This put the Massachusetts Charter School Athletic Organization’s only two undefeated teams on a collision course with each other last Friday at MIT in Cambridge—PHA at 10-0 and CCSC at 17-0.

Eleven of Prospect Hill’s fifteen rostered players scored in the Salem Academy game. Sophomore power forward Kaleesha Joseph led all scorers with 15 points and was aided by Seniors, guard Agar Felix and forward Tracy Beauvois, who scored 11 and 10 points respectively. Feliz’s back-court mate, Sophomore Ashley Cadet, was a steady contributor both on offense and defense in the Salem Academy affair, but only chipped in 4 points in the game—a season low for her in scoring.

In attendance at the game were several Community Charter School players and their head coach. After the game, Prospect Hill’s assistant coach, John R. Collins, brought this to the attention of the Lady Wizards and head coach, Brian Harris. Collins further emphasized that the CCSC Cougars also videotaped the game. Harris jokingly proclaimed to Cadet that it was an excellent strategy on Cadet’s part to show CCSC nothing so that she would not be perceived as a threat for the battle between the two teams scheduled for later in the week.

After three exceptional days of practice after the Salem game according to Harris, the Lady Wizards confidently but cautiously arrived at MIT’s Zesiger Sports Center in Cambridge on Friday night. Six minutes into this Clash of the Titans, PHA was trailing the Cougars by a score of 17-8. Also at this time, Prospect Hill’s leading scorer, Joseph, was on the bench with no points and two fouls where she remained until the start of the second half.

Shortly after this, with Cadet scoring a couple of baskets and the overall PHA team defense getting considerably stingier, the Lady Wizards closed the gap to 17-12 causing the Cougars to call the game’s first timeout with 7:57 left in the first half. Coming out of the timeout, Cadet scored 7 straight points to give PHA its first lead in the game at 18-17 with over six minutes remaining before half-time. The 5’2” and just over 110 pounds of mighty mite, Cadet, locked and loaded, carried Prospect Hill on her back to a 37-19 lead at intermission. Ashley totaled 21 first half points on twisting and turning lay-ups, stop and pop mid-range shots and two made “nothing but net” set shot three pointers.

Prospect Hill methodically controlled play in the second half and outscored the Cougars 19-14 during this time. When the horn at the end of the game sounded, PHA with strong fan support in a hostile gym came away with a 56-33 victory. Assisting the diminutive guard with scoring were Felix with 9 points overall, Joseph with 8 points (all in the second half), Junior swingman Fabiana Paul with 6, Beauvois chipping in 4 and Sophomore center Samaya Belizaire adding 2.

Cadet finished the challenge of the undefeated as the game’s leading scorer with 27 points. This offensive surge now stands as Ashley’s single game high in her three seasons on the varsity team and the individual game high for any player on the Lady Wizards’ team this season.

Community Charter School now leads Massachusetts Charter School Athletic Organization Division II with a 10-0 record, 17-1 overall. Prospect Hill Academy remains perfect at 8-0 in MCSAO Division I play and 10-0 overall.