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Ava Sartor ’25 blocks a Pflugerville player. Lady Warrior’s defense has improved throughout the season, consistently blocking the opposing team throughout the game.
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Lady Warriors cheer on the teammates from the bench. The crowd was energetic and excited, cheering loudly from the stands.
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Lady Warriors come out of halftime, being cheered on by young fans. The children are a part of a program with the Lady Warriors meant to build a community in basketball. ” It’s a really good tradition because we get to see how this younger generation is coming up,” Bella D’Alessandro said. “And it’s great because it builds kind of this community with the younger kids.”
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Theresa Bell ’26 passes the ball to Ava Sartor ’25. Westwood maintained great communication throughout the entire game. “Communication was a struggle in the past and we’ve been trying to work on it,” Taylor Thiemer ’25 said, “it’s definitely improved a lot.”
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On Tuesday, Nov. 29 varsity basketball played against their Austin-area foes, beating the Pflugerville Panthers 48-35. Throughout the entire game, Westwood played consistent strong defense against Pflugerville holding them to just 35 points. Offensively, Westwood was granted multiple free throw opportunities due to repeated fouls from the Panthers, contributing to their lead.
To start the game the Lady warriors were greeted with energetic cheers from the crowd, however, the Warrior defense faltered a little with Pflugerville making early shots, and grabbing the lead, but Westwood quickly recovered. Taylor Thiemer ‘25 made a three point shot, earning many excited cheers from the crowd. Despite the rough start, Westwood stayed strong through the first period, ending it in a 17-6 lead.
“[We did] very good,” Thiemer said. “We drove to the basket a lot more and definitely communicated and overall just improved a lot [from] the past and [I’m] very proud.”
The Lady Warriors carried their momentum into the second period, however, their defense let up a bit, allowing Pflugerville to gain more points, closing Westwood’s initial 11 point lead to an eight point lead. The Lady Warriors went into halftime with the score at 24-16, ready for their halftime team talk.
“Defensively, we just need [to improve on] rebounds,” Thiemer said. “But that’s a lot of teams because it’s just something you don’t think about and hopefully it just comes naturally as we move on forward.”
Westwood came out of halftime greeted by young fans cheering them on, high fiving them on the way back onto the court. Being from middle and elementary schools in the area, and being a part of a Big Sis, Little Sis program, the kids came out to support the Lady Warriors as the Warriors have been doing to get more young girls into the sports community.
The Lady Warriors emerged determined to correct their mistakes of the first half, consistently scoring and guarding the ball. In the first minutes of the third period, Emily Collins ‘24 scored two three point shots, followed by Thiemer making another three point shot. Westwood maintained their strong defense, but in the last 30 seconds of the third period, Pflugerville stole the ball and drove down the court, but missed the shot. The third period ended with the score at 32-26, with both teams determined to dominate the fourth period.
“At the beginning of the season we weren’t very intense on defense,” Collins said, “but I think we’ve really gotten better like ball pressure wise and probably boxing out and rebounding as well.”
The Lady Warrior maintained their strong lead in the fourth period, scoring in the first few minutes. As Pflugerville began to gain points, Theimer made another three point shot, killing the Panthers’ momentum, and bringing the score to 39-34. For the rest of the game the Lady Warriors were able to bring up the score by making multiple free throws.Westwood maintained their good communication and finished strong, beating Pflugerville 48-35.
“I feel like we put a lot of hard work and it really shows on the court,” Captain Bella D’Alessandro ‘25 said. “Everyone hustles, and I felt like we’ve done a really good job of building chemistry together, so I think that’s something that we’ve improved on.”
The Lady Warriors will be heading to a tournament in Georgetown on Nov. 30 taking on teams from all over the state.
![After taking a hit, John McNair '26 jumps above his defenders into the paint, trying to deepen the Warriors' lead over the Cedar Ridge Raiders on Tuesday, Dec. 3. McNair, after his time on the freshman team as a leading scorer joined the varsity team in his sophomore year in the hopes to continue his yearly tradition of layups, free throws, and buckets. "The way that we play [and succeed] does not matter what the other team looks like," Coach Rigney said. "We are just going to play the same way as we do."](https://westwoodhorizon.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_7402-761x1200.jpg)
