As it was the varsity girls’ basketball team’s first home game of the season, many friends, family, and students flocked to see the hard-fought game against the Cedar Park Timberwolves, on Friday, Nov. 3 at 7 p.m..

“The encouragement in the bleachers was awesome,” Anisha Chintala ‘21 said. “[Though] it would definitely be amazing if more people came out to support us.”

To gain a competitive advantage against the Timberwolves, the Lady Warriors put in strategic and tactical preparation for the game.

“We know how many points [the Timberwolves] scored last year what they’re good at,” Christie French ‘19 said, “if they’re good at driving or if they’re a shooter and we just defend them in a certain way.”

The team had mixed feelings before the game, due to their games against Cedar Park in the previous years.

“I was definitely nervous because I know that Cedar Park is a really good opponent,” French  said. “Last year [varsity] lost to them by one point, so it was a challenge to come out and have to make up for that.”

During the first half of the game, the Lady Warriors were falling behind in points due to many missed shots.

“We turned the ball over and we fouled a little bit too much. We played aggressive but we didn’t play smart aggressive sometimes,“ varsity girls’ basketball coach Doug Davalos said. “Offensively, we had chances to knock down shots and finish plays and we missed a lot of shots, free throws, and layups.”

Though the Lady Warriors were losing with a significant amount of points, they were still able to make a phenomenal comeback.

“My favorite scenario was the fact that we were down 17, we won the 2nd half, [and] battled back within two,” Coach Davalos said. “We fought to the end.”

To make this leap in points, the team also received a lot of feedback and suggestions from Coach Davalos during timeouts.

“He was just saying we need to play really really good defense so that they can’t shoot over us,” French said, “and don’t foul because especially in the last half when the score was close we didn’t want to give stupid fouls, to [make] someone foul out or give [the Timberwolves] easy points.”

The athletes gained many points through fouling by the Timberwolves as well, allowing them to lessen the gap in points.

“[I really liked] when Allyah drove to the basket and got and-one,” French said. “It really put us back in the game.”

The Lady Warriors fought hard to the end and lost with a score of 45-49.

“We all contributed to the game and we all played really hard, but we just didn’t get to win at the end of the day,” Chintala said.

Though their season began with a loss, the varsity girls’ team still has high ambitions for the rest of their games.

“Our coach always says we have standards and our standard is to be the same as last year and better,” French said. “Last year we were area champs and this year we are trying to make playoffs.”

The varsity girls’ basketball team will play their next game at Hutto High School on Monday, Nov. 6 at 7 p.m..