I apologize for no article in last week’s paper. I completely forgot about it. (I know my girls would find it hard to believe that I actually forgot something!) However, I do want to let everyone know about the games the week of January 19th. We played Dublin on the 20th and lost to them on their home court. We got an early lead on them, but in the end fell by 2 points. On January 23rd, we got another chance at Bangs JV. I think the girls were really seeking revenge on them because when we played them earlier in the year that was the most we had lost by all year. (17) We came out strong in the first half and never looked back. We ended up beating them by 3. (35-32) The girls did a great job in that game and I was VERY proud of them.

Now onto last weeks games. We were supposed to meet up with Brady on Tuesday night, but due to the ice we had to postpone the game to Wednesday. The girls came out a little sluggish in the 1st quarter and we were having trouble breaking their press.

At the end of the 1st quarter we were down 9 points. In the 2nd quarter we finally settled down and played. We won the game 32-24. I do want to commend all the girls because Brady did not score at all in the 2nd quarter. We were still down by 3 at halftime but we knew we could come out and still beat them.

The second half was huge for us. We definitely came out ready to play and played much more under control. We pressured them really well on defense which created some easy steals for us. Taylor Smith also hit some big shots late in the game to push us ahead and seal the victory.

Samantha Henry led all scorers with 20 points, which 12 of her 20 coming from the free throw line. Next in scoring was Taylor Smith with 6 points. We had played Brady twice this year already and had lost to them both times. I know I sure wanted to beat them and so did the girls.

On Friday, we played Early JV. We ended up beating Early’s JV 32-24 despite our struggle in the beginning. We started off the game a little sluggish once again, but in the 2nd half came out much stronger. They zoned up on us all night so it was a bit of a challenge for the girls to score on offense.

Anytime someone plays a 2-3 zone on you all game with 2 or 3 girls on your post players it makes it a little difficult. This gave our guards some good looks at the basket and they were able to shoot more. Our post players are our leading scores so when there are 2 or 3 girls on them someone has to step up and score and our guards did just that. I thought overall everyone played really well. It’s always nice when the girls on the bench can go into the game and really contribute.

Paige Chambers got in some foul trouble in the 2nd quarter, so Paige Faught had to step in and she was able to do what we needed from her. Silvia Jimenez led all scorers with 12 points while Ashley Pulatie followed with 8 points and Samantha Henry had 6 points.

I am so proud of these girls and what they have done the last couple of weeks. They all have improved greatly. We will return to action on Friday at 4 p.m. in Comanche. Tuesday is an open night for us. There are only two games left for us this season, so hopefully we can end with two wins.

Also, I want to thank everyone who came out and supported the varsity on Friday against early. Ya’ll gave us that extra push we needed to finish the game on top!!!