Girls basketball looks to break Trojans’ winning streak, capitalize on Seneca victory

Jonathan Trejo Perez

Senior Shawna Mcdougall looks to find the open player

Lady ‘Rines basketball hope to keep up the fire and steal a victory from the Gaithersburg Trojans in their house, tomorrow night, January 13. The girls varsity basketball team is currently 8-2 in the regular season, and they look to increase their record to 9-2.

After a loss to Poolesville, the girls varsity squad channeled their anger and took it out on the court when they completely annihilated the Seneca Valley Screamin’ Eagles on Tuesday, crushing them 60-36. Physical defense was the key to success for this girls basketball team. Blocks, steals and trapping the ball made it seem almost impossible for Seneca to score.

“I think we played aggressively, we definitely played our game,” junior Consuelo Moody said. “The bench definitely helped us win, [and] also keeping each other motivated and showing them that we wanted it.”

Last Friday, girls varsity basketball ended their five-game winning streak with a tough 34-61 loss against the Poolesville Falcons. Defense was the X factor in this game for the Lady ‘Rines. “We need to work on it,” senior Kareling Portillo said. “We weren’t focused, we had a long break, and I think we went in a little too confident.”

“We need to start applying what we do in practice to the game because we are forgetting certain things,” junior Heaven Atta added. “We also need to improve our basketball IQ to know what to do in certain situations.”

The Watkins Mill girls varsity squad dominated the court during winter break on Dec 26-27 when the team competed in the Brad Pinchback holiday tournament. Watkins Mill showed up and took the tournament by storm, outscoring every team that came into their path. Not only did they walk away with the trophy, but both senior Rokhy Sidibe and freshman Jada Thornton received MVP awards.

“I was more confident when I had the ball so I shot it more… I just stopped thinking too much and just played the game and had fun,” Sidibe said.

“I just hustled a lot, got open shots for my teammates, put up shots myself, and played well on defense,” Thornton added.

Come out tomorrow night, at 5:30pm, at Gaithersburg High School and support our Lady ‘Rines as they go for win number nine!