She smiled, knowing that each ding is proof of her sacrifice for her team, which so values an ability to recover loose balls that it drills diving on the floor every chance it gets.

“If you look at our knees, I don’t think anyone on the team doesn’t have a bruise,” Beatrice said. “Few scars, bruises, everything. You can tell we’re always on the ground for a loose ball. That’s what we practice, and I think it really shows in the game.”

The Tigers have paired their scrappy attitude with a talented and athletic core that should make them a vexing foe once the Division 1 North tourney gets underway.

After losing to Braintree in the second game of the season, they dedicated themselves to a fanatical effort on defense — and the floor burns that come with it — and rolled off 15 straight wins. A win last month in their rematch against the Wamps earned the Tigers a share of the top spot in the Bay State Conference’s Carey Division.

Newton North coach Linda Martindale started her coaching career more than 20 years ago, but she insists that this year’s team has a passion for defense unlike any other squad she’s been around.

“This team is exceptionally rare because they really buy into defense,” Martindale said. “If there’s a loose ball, I gotta tell you, it almost always goes to North. These kids will dive on the floor, and people ask me, ‘How do you get kids to dive on the floor?’ You practice it. You practice it. We practice with such a high level of intensity that when we go into games there’s a loose ball, and kids dive on the floor without even thinking. They’re just intense little cats, these ones.”

Their willingness to sprawl across an unforgiving floor for wayward basketballs appears to have become second nature.

In last week’s 59-29 win over Brookline, junior Infiniti Thomas-Waheed  saw an opportunity for a turnover rolling around on the ground and pounced. Her team was up big, and the game was almost over, but she dove, head first, into a swarm of sneakers and called timeout to save possession.

“I think the whole team, we’re willing to work hard for the sake of our teammates,” Thomas-Waheed said. “It’s something small — you would never think about how our knees are doing. But it’s a huge statement about our team, about how we’re willing to sacrifice everything we have just for the sake of the game.”

Thomas-Waheed, a 5-foot-11 wing player, is one of Newton North’s hardest workers and its most skilled player. She can score inside and out, defend any position, and rebound when called upon. Against Brookline, she put together a 20-point, 13-rebound, 10-steal triple-double.

She is already receiving interest from local Division 1 colleges — including University of Massachusetts Amherst, Boston University, Northeastern University, University of Vermont, and Harvard University — and is only getting better.

Her father, Akbar Waheed , is an assistant coach for the men’s basketball team at Boston College, and is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to how she can improve on the court.

But for her and her Newton North teammates, it is their defense that gets the most work during practices.

The Tigers have tuned their zone 2-2-1 press into a humming turnover machine, and their help defense in half-court sets is smothering. They are quick enough to jump into passing lanes, and skilled enough to turn their deflections into easy fast-break points at the other end.

“They’re very aggressive,” said Brook­line coach Allyson Toney. “They face-guard you and prevent you from getting it in. They don’t make it easy for you to get the ball inbounds. And they’re a very experienced team. They’re athletic, and they’re in very good shape, so that definitely helps.”

As does the willingness to wear their heart on their knees.

Concord-Carlisle boys turn their season around

First it was a 1-point loss to Westford. Then it was an overtime loss to Woburn. After that there was a tough 9-point defeat to Medford.

The Concord-Carlisle boys felt as though they were doing things correctly, but they were not doing enough to win. They shuffled through their first eight games of the season with a record of 3-5.