The girls’ basketball team split their two games this past week against the Wootton Patriots (3-0) and Northwood Gladiators (0-3) moving their overall record to 2-1.
On Friday, Dec. 9, the Wildcats were narrowly defeated by the Patriots 62-60. After being down double digits in the fourth quarter, the Wildcats put together a strong comeback bid but came just short in the final seconds.
“That was a learning experience for us. We’re still on the younger side for a team, especially in our division and that Wootton team is a veteran team, they have seven or eight seniors. They’ve been playing for a while, they executed but we responded. We switched our game plan in the middle of the game and were executing and able to come back which is exactly what I want to see. We showed a lot of fight and never gave up and as a coach, I could not be more proud of that,” head coach Chris Donlon said.
To end the fourth quarter they went on a 17-2 run and did not allow a field goal in the final minutes as they made many in-game adjustments including switching from a zone to man defense. Freshman guard Norah Youssef led the team in scoring for the second game in a row with 18 points.
“It was a tough loss, but I think we did a good job getting back in the game, we were down 20 and we didn’t put our heads down, we got back in it and should’ve had it at the end, but tough loss,” senior captain and guard Katie Martin said.
On Tuesday, Dec. 13, the Wildcats obliterated the Gladiators 80-3. They did not give up a field goal after the four-minute mark in the first quarter and the number of shots taken by the Gladiators were few as the Wildcats forced many turnovers. They went into halftime with a 52-2 lead.
“We looked at the film, we studied it and we shut down their best player,” Martin said.
The team’s ball movement and transition scoring were on point during the game building some offensive momentum for the rest of the season. The game’s leading scorer was Martin with 15 points.
“I feel like we just do what we do in practice which is stay calm, run our sets and play ball, have fun,” sophomore forward Mae Hamilton said.
The Wildcats will travel on Friday, Dec. 16 to face the Blair Blazers (2-1) and play their next home game against the Churchill Bulldogs (3-0) on Wednesday, Dec. 21. Both games will be at 7:15 p.m.
![Girls' varsity lacrosse head coach Christina FItzpatrick has made a significant impact during her two-year tenure. Fitzpatrick has not only been the head coach, but a friend to many players. “One of the things that stands out about [Fitzpatrick is] she expects a lot, but she always has this silly, fun side. You have to have that balance of getting athletes to do stuff for you, but because they want to, and girls want to impress her and they want to work hard for her. At the same time we could have the girls running 300 Thursday and everyone will just be cracking jokes. It’s that work hard, play hard mentality,” Herdman said.](https://www.wjpitch.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/IMG_5353.jpg)
