Winter Sports Picking Up For Rockets; Boys Hoops Wins 2 Straight, Girls Hockey Falls in OT
January 9, 2025
•Boys Basketball won two straight, but Girls Hockey dropped a heartbreaker.
The Winter Sports Season for the Needham Rockets has seen its ups and downs as the first full week of the 2025 part of the schedule. Boys Basketball picked up a pair of wins, while Girls and Boys Hockey each split a pair of games, while Girls Basketball dropped two before winning one.
Boys Basketball played its first home game of the season on Friday, January 3rd, winning 57-46 against Walpole, then taking another W on Tuesday, January 7th, 41-36 at Milton. The Wildcats Girls Hockey team then came to Babson the following night, coming back from a 4-1 deficit in the 3rd period to force overtime and ultimately win 5-4 over the Rockets.
Needham played their first game of 2025 on Saturday, January 4th, blowing out Walpole 6-0 at Cadillac Ice Arena. Cassie Ling has been the leading scorers for the Rockets thus far, with seven goals in the team’s first five games, then picking up her eighth and ninth goals of the season in the second period of the game at Babson against Milton.
Jill Peabody scored her fifth goal of the year in the first period, before Nayeli Thayer evened the score at one shortly thereafter. With the scored tied at one heading into the second period, Needham found the back of the net three times in less than five minutes, with Ling’s two goals bookending the second by Peabody, her sixth of the season. Katelyn Birnbaum also had a pair of assists for Needham, her seventh and eighth of the year.
But the Wildcats slowly chipped away at that lead in the third period, as Molly Murphy scored with 6:46 left, Thayer has her second of the game with 2:06, then on a power play with 1:31 to go, Marin Hart tied it with 26.9 left on the clock and Milton having a 6-on-4 advantage having pulled their goalie.
The two teams played a five minute overtime session to avoid a tie and with 1:13 left on the clock, Sabrina Stone scored the fourth straight goal for Milton, giving them the win and improving their record to 6-3. Needham fell to 3-2-1 and will head to Ryan Arena in Watertown to face Newton North on Saturday, January 11th at 2:20pm before returning to Babson to face Wellesley on Wednesday, January 15th at 6:30pm. The Needham Channel will be carrying that one live, as well as Boys Basketball’s next game, Friday, January 10th at 6:45pm against 7-0 Newton North.
Girls Basketball was 3-2 on the season before falling 34-27 at Walpole on Friday, January 3rd. The following Monday, they welcomed defending Division 1 State Champion Bishop Feehan to the A Gym, and played close with the Shamrocks in every quarter but the second, where the Rockets were outscored 22-8. Feehan won the game 64-53, despite a 16 point effort on 4-of-6 three point shooting by Annie Camozzi, 13 points by Hannah Levine, 10 from Aislin Flaherty and 13 rebounds by Eva Andrews.
The following night, however, the Rockets picked up their first win in 2025, beating Milton 47-33 at home and improving their record to 4-4. Needham will travel to Newton North on Friday, January 10th at 6pm, before returning home to host Wellesley on Tuesday, January 14th at 6:30pm. The Needham Channel will be recording that game to air later, however, it won’t be live.
Needham Boys Hockey has been on a roll since their season opener, an overtime loss to Weymouth recorded by TNC. The Rockets have won five of the six games they’ve played during that time, with a 3-2 loss at home against Walpole on January 4th the only blemish. Needham rebounded in a 5-2 win at Milton on January 8th to improve their season record to 5-2. They’ll next host Newton North on Saturday, January 11th at 10:30am from Babson.
Mike Levin has highlights from Boys Basketball vs. Walpole, Girls Basketball vs. Bishop Feehan and Girls Hockey vs. Milton, as seen on the Needham Channel News, which you can view in the video box below:
The Needham Channel is your home for Needham Rockets Varsity Sports and you can watch every game we go to, on The Needham Channel’s HD, Community and Education Channels, as well as streaming on needhamchannel.org and our Roku app. We also have game stories on Needham Local, as well as highlights posted to our Needham Channel YouTube page. You can also follow live game action via our X page at: x.com/tnc_sports.
TNC is looking for volunteers who want to help out as crew and announcers for all of our game broadcasts this school year. If you love sports or know someone on a team, send an email to TNC Programming Manager Mike Levin at: mlevin@needhamchannel.org.
Be sure to check out the TNC Instagram page, for all of our content from the 2024-205 Needham Winter Sports Season at: instagram.com/theneedhamchannel.
