The championship win felt bittersweet for the girls basketball team after losing two starters to season ending injuries during the Blenner Classic Tournament over winter break.
“It was devastating, and we actually won the championship, but it felt like we lost, because the two girls have been such a huge, important part of this team,” said Nick Capalbo, head girls varsity basketball coach.
According to senior Sophia Gochis, “It just kind of changed the vibe because it was a whole new starting lineup [after the injuries], and we just had to change the way we played offense and defense.”
It was definitely hard with both of them getting injured in the same game, but it was good to see that we were still able to continue scoring and playing defense without two of our starters, Gochis said.
Sophomore Jenna Budzinski Espina leads the Spartans (12-8, 1-5) in points and assists, and junior Maya Moser leads the team in steals as of Jan. 29. Senior Sloan Berman and Gochis hold the highest three-point and free throw percentages, respectively.
“At the beginning of the season, we started off really strong in our Thanksgiving tournament, but then as we got into conference it got a little harder,” Berman said.
We lost a bunch of close games, so we’ve been really hopeful and trying to get better as a team the whole season, Berman said.
The team is incorporating a scout team of boys intramural basketball players into their practices more often this year to prepare for tough matchups.
The scout team makes practices more like game speed, Capalbo said.
According to Gochis, the scout team definitely ramps up the practices more so it’s a lot more competitive and they push us to go 100 percent the whole time.
The scout team players also want to get better for their intramural season, so they enjoy coming in as well, Gochis said.
According to Berman, the scout team gets a lot of steals, tips and deflections, which helps the girls to be more cautious with what they’re doing.
The scout team plays as the opponent’s defense to help prepare the team for their upcoming game.
“[Capalbo] taught us exact components of the defensive structure their team is gonna play against, so we just honestly mimicked their opponent,” scout team member Max Wolas said.
According to Gochis, one goal the team has been focused on is finishing games.
“We are usually really close or we’ll be winning, and then we end up losing in the fourth quarter, which is unfortunate,” said Gochis. “We just need to keep the energy throughout the whole entire game and not let up at the end.”