Lexington High School basketball teams ready for D1 Tournament

Even when the Lexington High School girls basketball team dropped its fifth straight contest to open the 2024-25 season, the team’s players and coaches knew something would give.

A two-point defeat at Middlesex League foe Woburn, which hasn’t lost a league game in four years, and a one-point loss to a strong Lincoln-Sudbury showed promise for the Minutewomen. The question: when would they get over the hump?

The answer: January 3. A 50-47 home win against Reading kicked off a season-ending 11-4 surge, altering the course of the season from potential disappointment to an MIAA Division 1 state tournament berth.

“Thinking about the team now to the start of the season, it’s completely different,” said senior guard Stella Criniti, who is committed to play collegiately at Division III Skidmore College and reached the 1,000-point plateau earlier this year. “I think we just found our rhythm, how to play with each other and our roles.”

“That first win just sparked something and the last month has been amazing.”

The turnaround by the girls and a strong regular season for the boys resulted in both LHS basketball teams qualifying for the postseason. Their respective round of 32 games occurs Friday. The girls (11-9), ranked No. 23 in a 38-team field, travel to No. 10 King Philip Regional High School at 6 p.m. The boys (15-5), No. 22 in a 39-team field, visit No. 11 Braintree at a time to be determined. Neither team met its playoff foe during the regular season.

A 5-foot-5 point guard, Criniti netted her 1,000th point as part of a career-high 35-point outburst in a late-season victory against Belmont. The fifth member of the LHS girls basketball’s 1,000-point club, Criniti joined current assistant coach Anna Kelly (’16), Laura Yasaitis (’01), Andrea Pawliczek (’98), and Sharon Haynes (’84).

Criniti, a four-year varsity player, forged a close bond with Kelly, the program’s all-time scoring leader with 2,015 points. She scored 189 points as a freshman, 247 points as a sophomore, 369 points with a career-best 59 three-pointers as a junior, and, so far, 307 points as a senior. Lexington coach Steve Solly describes Criniti as “shy and humble” with a “quiet confidence” who leads by example.

“I knew she was special with her quickness, shooting ability and love for the game,” Solly said. “I knew if she could make the jump physically after her freshman year, she could have a shot at it — and she did that, training hard in the offseason.

“When she does speak, everyone listens.”

The thought of scoring 1,000 points crossed Criniti’s mind a few times throughout her career, but she didn’t let it dictate her play. Going into the final home game needing four points for 1,000, Criniti was worried about hitting the mark. She scored the game’s first five points and netted the aforementioned career-high 35 points after missing the prior game with the flu.

Criniti, who is involved with the school’s unified basketball program and an instructor with the team’s youth basketball clinics, leads the team in scoring at 16 points per game and averages 5.3 rebounds. Classmates Gloria Doyle (14 points, 6 rebounds), Samantha Fortier (7 points, 8.1 rebounds, 3.5 assists), and junior Charlotte Ash (8 points, 4 rebounds) make up a talented supporting cast.

The girls team enters postseason play winners of six straight, the last four by seven points or less. Avenging two early-season Middlesex League losses and winning a championship at the mid-February Spartan Classic in Lynn further boosted confidence. It had been almost a decade since Lexington was invited to the tournament. Winning it sets a good example even for youth players coming up, Solly said.

“With the team right now, culture’s the biggest thing,” Criniti said. “It’s been one of the greatest since I’ve been here. We went into the Spartan Classic so hyped, pumped up and really prepared. Coming off that is really great going into the playoffs. I think it sets us up really well.”

The boys won the Middlesex League titles in 2022 and 2023 and made last year’s tournament as the No. 34 seed, winning a preliminary game before a close loss to No. 2 Catholic Memorial. Despite graduating league MVP Derin Ongur and starting center Ryan Asarpour, they posted winning streaks of three, four, and six games throughout the regular season, and closed it with an 11-point victory over Westford Academy to snap a two-game skid.

Junior Sam Myerberg leads the boys team in scoring at 18.8 points per game. Classmates Charlie O’Brien (13.4 points), Amari Mow (9.1 points, 7 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 3.2 steals), Brendan Schwartz (7.2 points), senior Andrew Sievens (7.1 points), and sophomore Nazir Mendes-Stephen (5.2 points, 3.7 rebounds, 2.9 assists) all play impactful roles.

“Anytime you win 15 games you’ve had a great season,” coach Reggie Hobbs said. “You’re always trying to improve and tweak things within your system, and that’s what we’re continuing to try and do.”

Their goal is to score in the 70s. Most teams look to play in the 50s come playoff time. They shoot an average of 24 three-pointers per game, more than what they give up. The team’s 10-player rotation keeps bodies fresh and wears opponents with shorter rotations down.

“The key for us is how we get the game to be the tempo, style, and pace we want,” Hobbs said. “Teams make conscious decisions to take away the three or take away the paint, but we’re diverse enough individually and collectively.”

Last year’s girls team made it to the Elite Eight. One key senior graduated, and two starters and a rotation player transferred to prep schools. The close early losses showed potential and also fueled a turnaround, one that the program hopes lasts well into the postseason.

“Obviously it’s a one-game season,” Solly said. “The last six games we were in dogfights and were like tournament atmospheres. If we can remind each other that we’ve been in these kinds of games, anything can happen.”