In the first district home game of the season, the varsity girls’ basketball team battled it out against the Cedar Ridge Raiders, but ultimately lost with a final score of 56-59. Though the Lady Warriors held the lead for a brief amount of time in the last quarter, they were unable to bring home the win.

“We just need to improve on capitalizing on offense and possessions, taking care of the ball, and not turning it over,” assistant coach Jamie Coy said. “[I expect] hard work, commitment, and following through.”

The first quarter began with the tip-off going to the Lady Raiders, though Allyah Beaty ‘18 and Madison Couch ‘17 added several points to the scoreboard, ending the quarter with a tie of 11-11.

Marked with incessant fouls by both teams, Couch started off the second quarter with a two-pointer, and a foul by the Lady Warriors allowed the Raiders to gain two points, bringing the score up to a tie of 14-14. The Warriors called their first timeout with 7 minutes 28 seconds left, following it up with two-pointers by Danielle Davalos ‘19 and Meaghan Hendricks ‘18. The Lady Warriors eventually gained the lead following a foul by the Raiders. Strong communication between Lauren Jury ‘17 and Davalos resulted in Davalos sinking a three-pointer, and the second quarter ended 32-28.

Halftime featured a performance by the SunDancers, who danced to Don’t Stop Believin’, their finale dance for Escapade 2016. The Lady Warriors widened their lead with three-pointers by Hendricks and Beaty. However, weak defense and a foul by the Warriors led to the Raiders taking the lead, and the third quarter ended 42-48.

Starting off the final quarter with a six-point deficit, the Lady Warriors were quick to rack up points. Strong communication between Kandyce Shepard ‘17, Davalos, and Beaty allowed Beaty to score her third three-pointer of the night, putting the Warriors in the lead once again. Fouls by the Warriors resulted in the Lady Raiders taking hold of the lead, which they maintained for the remainder of the game. Beaty’s fourth three-pointer brought the score up 56-59, and with 11.6 seconds left on the clock, the Lady Warriors failed to pull ahead to claim victory. While the team may not have been able to take home the win in their first district game, players were able to gain a sense of what they needed to work on.

“Simply put, I need to work on turnovers,” Couch said. “I need to make sure who I’m passing to, and that what I’m doing is exactly what I want to do. Offensive rebounds killed us this game, that’s one of the biggest things that let us down and why we had this loss, but I think that defensively, we can always get better, so we just need to improve on that.”

The Lady Warriors will face off against the Lake Travis Cavaliers at Lake Travis High School on Friday, Dec. 9.