An early theme that's sticking out as we prepare for the 2024-25 MIAA girls basketball season: Some truly dynamic duos are leading the way for top teams.
Two players alone don't make for a championship blueprint. But star power can set a high floor, and having multiple stars who play well together can vault a school into contention quickly.
The MIAA returns tons of talent from the 2023-24 season. Included are several pairings who have already won state championships and are projected to become even more prominent pieces on their teams. They're not necessarily the best players in the association, but they're among the elite, and have shown synergy on the biggest stages.
Here are six dynamic duos who will be at the forefront of the upcoming season.
Charlotte Adams-Lopez and Maddy Steel, Bishop Feehan
The teammates, senior classmates, and 5-foot-8 guards both from North Attleboro have steered the Shamrocks to a Division 1 title in 2023-24 and a state final appearance in 2022-23. They're perfect complements. Adams-Lopez, a Brown commit, boasts arguably the best court vision in MIAA and averaged 5.5 assists per game last season. She's also a smooth scorer and cutter who keeps Bishop Feehan playing at a fast tempo.
Steel, who committed to play at Tufts last week, puts herself in the conversation for the MIAA's best shooter. She's adept at moving without the basketball and has drilled some clutch 3-pointers in huge games during her high school career. Both are also tough-nosed defenders unafraid to take contact. They're the primary reasons Bishop Feehan is an early favorite to reach a third straight state championship game.
Hijjah Allen-Paisley and Keyona Raines, Cathedral
We're sticking with Catholic Central League backcourts. Allen-Paisley and Raines have guided Cathedral on back-to-back Division 4 title runs, and even with Jasmine Day-Cox graduating, the Boston natives still help Cathedral remain a frontrunner this year. Like Adams-Lopez and Steel, these guards play very different styles that fit well together.
Allen-Paisley, a 5-foot-5 senior, is the steadying force. She's a smooth shooter who makes smart decisions with the ball and has soft touch on floaters and mid-range jumpers. In contrast, the junior Raines lights the spark for Cathedral's aggressive, high-pressure defense and transition attack. She's a swarming perimeter defender whose downhill speed makes her tough to stop once she swipes the ball away.
Naya Annigeri and Izzy Kittredge, Medfield
Medfield has an incredibly high team ceiling, which is scary considering they won the Division 2 championship last year. At the head of the group are Annigeri, a 2027 point guard, and Kittredge, a 2026 stretch wing. Annigeri averaged 13.7 points and 2.7 steals last year with 50-40-85 percent shooting splits — eye-popping numbers for any high-schooler, let alone a freshman. Next to her, Kittredge drills corner 3s as a 6-footer, and her size also helps her drive past and finish against the smaller defenders who typically guard her out on the wing. Junior Tess Baacke also deserves a shoutout as a core piece to Medfield's title defense.
Reagan Dowd and Maddie Oliver, Norwell
Norwell reached its first state final since 1989 last season, but the Clippers were longshots in the Division 3 championship against powerhouse Foxboro. This year, they're right in the mix of elite teams that could win it all, and it's because of these two seniors' emergence as a dynamic duo.
Oliver's versatility puts her among the MIAA's best. She's a 5-foot-11 forward who runs Norwell's offense with high-level vision, a solid handle and shooting touch, and a relentless commitment to rebounding, shown in her 19.8 points, 9.8 boards and 3.2 assists per game in 2023-24. But Dowd can lead possessions too and has emerged as one of my favorite underrated players in MIAA. The 5-foot-8 combo guard is simply an elite 3-point shooter — I watched her go 9-for-14 from distance in the quarterfinals and semifinals last spring — and a physically strong, tenacious defender.
Ava Orlando and Elle Orlando, Notre Dame (Hingham)
The best sibling duo? It's got to be the Orlando sisters. The two 1,000-point scorers have spearheaded the Cougars while being coached by their mother, Nickie, and the best could still be yet to come. Ava, who will play in college at Bentley, is a prolific passer with ridiculous range who averaged 20 points, 7 assists and 7 steals in a dominant junior campaign. The primary benefactor of Ava's playmaking: Elle, a junior shooting guard, who put up 16 points per game and built her own case as one of the MIAA's best sharpshooters. The Cougars have been slowly building towards Div. 2 title contender status during the Orlando sisters' careers, and their final run together might be their best shot.
Addie Ruter and Kailey Sullivan, Foxboro
Of course, Foxboro is still the incumbent favorite to win its third straight state title. Camryn Collins may be at Rider, but two of last year's Big Three are back as seniors.
I'm intrigued to watch Sullivan step up as the featured playmaker when she mostly played off of Collins in prior years. Sullivan still averaged nearly 20 points last season, canned 76 3-pointers and surpassed 1,200 career points. If her summer performance with Foxboro at the Wally Seaver Invitational was any indication, she's going to have the ball in her hands a lot.
Ruter did not play in the tournament as she battled an injury, but she was a game-changer last postseason. The 6-foot-3 center is one of the MIAA's premier paint protectors. But on offense, she's more of a finesse scorer and deadly in the short-to-mid-range areas with her height and soft shooting touch. Hopefully Ruter and Sullivan stay healthy, because the two-player sets they could run with each other will be fun to watch.
Four more dynamic duos to follow: Mckenna Morrison and Shannon McCarthy (Woburn), Bella Owumi and Lily Norton (St. Mary's), Celia Neilson and Caitlin Boyle (Bishop Fenwick), Kerri Finneran and Aniela Kwo (Central Catholic)
