Needham Hoops Sweeps Weymouth in Doubleheader
January 30, 2026
• The boys won their sixth straight, while the girls got back on track after a surprising loss.
The Needham girls and boys varsity basketball teams hosted a doubleheader against Weymouth on Coaches vs. Cancer night, Friday at the A Gym, where both teams were raising money for the American Cancer Society. The Rockets started strong in both games, with the girls outscoring the Wildcats 31-2 in the first quarter and winning 73-30, then the boys getting a huge boost by senior captain Andrew Chen’s four threes in the first and winning 91-58.
Chen hit his first six from three-point range, finishing 6-of-7 from long range and 24 points on the game, along with three steals. Ben Marino also hit 3-of-5 from three-point territory to finish with 12 points, while Foster Wilinski and Matt Cloonan each chipped in 10 points apiece.
The girls, once ranked #3 in the MIAA Division 1 Power Rankings, dropped to fifth after being upset at home Tuesday night by Milton. Despite a tough overtime win over Natick last Friday, the Rockets had lost three of their last four heading into Friday.
Offense has been a struggle during that stretch, but not against Weymouth. Needham had eight different point scorers in the first half, led by Lacey Williams, who had nine. Eva Andrews and Hannah Levine each had eight, while Aislin Flaherty had seven.
Up 43-13 heading into the third quarter, Needham fans were given a scare, when Andrews was poked in the eye while collecting her eighth rebound of the game. It was so severe that she had to come out of the game and never returned.
Luckily Andrew’s teammates kept up their momentum, with Levine hitting a trio of threes in the third quarter, while Flaherty added six points as the Rockets outscored the Wildcats 19-5 in the quarter. Levine finished with a game-high 17 points on 4-of-7 three point shooting. Flaherty and Williams each added 13 points, with Flaherty also grabbing seven rebounds.
Needham had 10 different point scorers, shot 16-of-22 from the free throw line and 7-of-21 from long distance. The 73 points scored by the Rockets is their highest output of the season, beating their previous mark of 72, also set against Weymouth, 72-35 in their first game of the year back in December.
Weymouth, who came in at 1-11 and ranked #44 in the MIAA D1 Power Rankings, came in having lost five in a row after beginning their season with six straight defeats. Their only victory came on Jan. 9, a 64-38 home win over Framingham, who will be the next team Needham hosts on Tuesday, Feb. 2.
In the second game of the night, the Needham boys, ranked #4 in the MIAA Division 1 Power Rankings, hoped to continue their dominance. The Rockets opened the season in December with a 73-45 win at Weymouth, winning seven straight before falling 58-44 on Jan. 6 at old rival Newton North.
But Needham then rattled off five more wins, including a 62-52 revenge win over Newton North at home on Jan. 16. On Friday against the 0-12 Wildcats, ranked all the way at the bottom of the MIAA D1 rankings at #66, Chen had the hot hand from the start, scoring 14 of the team’s 27 first quarter points as the Rockets led 27-13 heading to the second quarter.
The Rockets would outscore the Wildcats in every quarter, with Chen hitting two more threes and Marino and Cloonan each hitting one as well. Wilinski also threw down a monster slam dunk that drove the Needham student section into a frenzy of excitement.
Needham took a 48-30 lead into halftime, then a 70-45 lead at the end of the third quarter. Marino had seven points in the third, including his third three pointer, while Wilinski added six more at the end of the quarter.
The Rockets got the bench involved in the fourth, with Ben Villa leading five different Needham players with seven points. Needham had 13 different point scorers in the game. They will hit the road for two games at Framingham on Feb. 3 and Braintree Feb. 6 before coming back home against Walpole on Tuesday, Feb. 10.
Check out highlights from both games here, via our Instagram page:
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