Last Wednesday, the Gopher varsity girls basketball team hosted the Central Catholic Rams. They were met with impressive skill and execution on the court and ultimately lost the game, 26-67.
During the first quarter, the Gophers played a strong game, but their skills could not match that of the Rams, who have players such as senior Kailee Johnson who just signed with Stanford University and senior Jordan Reynolds who signed with Tennessee. At the end of the first quarter, the score was 5-20.
According to sophomore Bailey Allen, the game went well although the score was a lot to a little. She felt that it was the best she has seen her team play because they all played as one and they had each other’s back.
“We did well at keeping ourselves calm, we never gave up and we left everything on the court,” Allen said. “ It was a good game, but the scoreboard did not reflect it.”
The second quarter was the same as the first, as the Rams came into it hammering the Gophers by scoring 22 more points while the Gophers scored only four. During the third quarter however, the girls came out of halftime pumped and beat the Rams, scoring 18 points compared to the 6 points the Rams scored.
According to junior Emily Smart, they came out strong and did not let up. She felt her team executed what was needed to get done and she personally felt very proud of her teammates.
Superfan sophomore Sirgeo Hoffman stated that he thought the Gophers could have done better. They were just kinda psyched out because it is Central Catholic, and if they went in with a clear mind, they would have done much better.
According to Hoffman, some things they did wrong was their passing, being that they did not make smart passes and had a lot of turnovers. They just needed to stay under control. He did have positive remarks as well for the team.
“Some things they did good is they kept playing hard even though they were down by a lot,” Hoffman said, “and they kept their heads high.”
In the fourth quarter, the Rams shut out the Gophers, only allowing three points to be scored.
According to head coach Sarabeth Leitch, the girls played really strong, excelled at defense, and even though they knew it was a tough team, they did not back down. She also thought the girls put good pressure on the ball and played as a unit.
She added that there were a couple key aspects for the team to work on before seeing them again.
“We weren’t as physical as we need to be when blocking out the other team, but confidence and strength with and without the ball is something we are working on,” Leitch said.
Overall, the Gophers played a great game against an extremely tough opponent to beat.
