SACO — Of all the things Thornton girls basketball player Olivia Shaw has to worry about during her senior season, one thing she won’t have to worry about is where she is going to play in college next year. Shaw has committed to play at Division-III Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass.

“It’s an extremely good school, and that’s what I thought about first. I’m going to college to continue my education, and hopefully get a degree and get a job after that. It’s a great school,” said Shaw. “I visited like five times, and I love the coach. It just seemed like a perfect fit for me, with the way they play, and everything about it.”

Shaw has had a stellar career for the Trojans, and the start to her senior career has been no different. Shaw leads Thornton in scoring at 14 points a game, but according to head coach Eric Marston, she’s more than just a scorer.

“A lot of people forget about the role that she plays on the defensive end of the court. Every game, she winds up with a handful of steals, and is almost always in double digits on the glass,” said Marston. “That’s a part of her game that sometimes gets overlooked, because they see the offensive stats.

“She’s just an invaluable player on both ends of the floor for us.”

Marston said that Shaw has earned a shot to play at the collegiate level with the amount of work she’s put into her game the last four years.

“You always love to see a player get rewarded for the hard work that they put in, and Olivia works on her game 365 days a year. She’s committed to doing hard work in all areas of the game, not just on scoring,” said Marston. “She’s a complete player.”

Shaw said that she can’t wait to get to Brandeis and see what the college game is about, although she still has some unfinished work to do with her Trojan teammates.

“I’m excited to learn what it’s all about, further my game, and learn more,” she said.

Shut-down defender

Jake Moody scored a game-high and season-high 41 points for the Wells boys basketball game on Saturday night against Freeport, but he defected away any praise when talking about who the Warriors’ most important player was in a 74-61 win.

Moody pointed to junior guard Chris Carney, who only scored 39 points less than Moody.

“I’d say that he’s the MVP of the game tonight. He shut down (Chandler) Birmingham. We came into the game, we knew if we could keep him under control, we’d have control of the game,” said Moody. “I’d give Carney the MVP of the game tonight; he shut him down.”

The 6-feet-3-inch Birmingham finished with 13 points for the Falcons, but he was held scoreless in the first quarter, and hit four free throws in the fourth quarter after Carney fouled out.

Darling a dart in the pool

Massabesic and Kennebunk met last Saturday in a big early season swimming meet, and on the boys side, the Mustangs came out of the pool victorious. A big reason for that is the performance of junior Mason Darling.

Darling swam in four events, and finished in first in all of them. He placed first in both the 50- and 100-yard freestyle, with times of 24.87 and 55.21 seconds, respectively, and helped the Mustangs win both the 200-yard medley and 200-yard freestyle relays. Darling swam the anchor leg of the freestyle relay, with his split of 24.22 seconds helping the Mustangs edge out Kennebunk.

— Staff Writer Wil Kramlich can be contacted at 282-1535.