The varsity girls’ basketball team successfully defended their home court on Tuesday, Nov. 20 against Stony Point, with a final score of 53-32. Despite their much larger point total, the road leading to the Warriors’ victory wasn’t smooth.

The first points of the game were scored by the Warriors, as Oni Boodoo ‘19 scored a two-pointer within the first few minutes. However, the Tigers retaliated, catching up with them alarmingly quickly. With free throws given to them in plentiful amounts, the Warriors were able to gain a significant advantage over their opponents, finishing the first quarter with a score of 10-6.

“We just needed to execute more offense, but overall we had a really strong defense,” Boodoo said. “We started out kind of slow, but together we pulled it together for the win.”

The intensity picked up during the second quarter, as the Warriors quickly soared ahead of the Tigers with a flurry of shots. The quarter began with a three-point shot from Kenzie Beckham ‘21. A strong defense kept the ball away from the Tigers, and a rebound followed by a difficult yet successful pass from Kooper Giles ‘20 to Boodoo lead to lots of quick points. More baskets from Beckham and more lead to the Lady Warriors to close out the first half of the game with a score of 25-8, with the Warriors leading with more than triple the points of their opponents.

“I think we played really good defense,” Danielle Davalos ‘19 said. “That lead to us picking up our offense more.”

The second half of the game began with a quick score from Giles, but problems quickly rose due to some miscommunications between the players. An overshot ball by Christie French ‘19 lead to the ball falling to enemy hands, and this lead the Tigers coming close to catching up to the Warriors’ larger point total. However, they quickly made up for this with a play between Anisha Chintala ‘21 and French for a two-pointer, and other similar plays. Both teams’ defenses then began playing at their best, leading to a lack of point gain for a majority of the third quarter. This point drought was broken by Makayla Coy ‘19, and soon to follow was a three-pointer shot by Davalos. The Lady Warriors emerged from the third quarter with a score of 36-17.

“It was a good team win,” Davalos said. “Everybody contributed.”

Tension between teams rose during the fourth quarter, as the Tigers desperately tried to come on top. The quarter began with a three-point score from Desi Davalos ‘22, and more free throws from Boodoo and Coy. The Tigers then began making some free throws of their own, but lost the ball in a rebound to Coy, who then preceded to score. While the Tigers nearly doubled their point total from the end of the last quarter, it still proved to not be enough, with the game ending at a score of 53-32.

“At the start of every year, we say we want to be the best communicating team in the state,” Coach Doug Davalos said.  “We want people to know that we’re gonna talk to each other. There were times on this game that we weren’t communicating well, and so that caused some problems on offense. But we got better at it, and I think as we got better, we started pulling weight.”

The Lady Warriors will challenge Cedar Ridge next Tuesday, Nov. 27 away from home.