Going on a five-game winning streak at the beginning of the season, then later in the season losing four straight, and going into the playoffs with a record of 11-11, Lady ‘Rines basketball has certainly had their ups and downs but look to dominate in the playoffs tonight against Blake.

It was senior night against the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Barons last Friday, February 17. They fought hard but lost to the Barons with a score of 48-41. “I think towards the end it was just lack of communication especially on defense, it was something that brought us down a bit,” senior forward Amashia Moyd said.

Communication is still a problem for this team, and they look to fix it before they go into the playoffs. “We have to work harder during practice and we practice a lot of defense and talking more,” Moyd added. 

This team quickly turned around from this loss, managing to get a win for the Lady ‘Rines on Tuesday, February 14 when they rampaged through the Rockville Rams and left nothing but destruction behind them.

Watkins Mill started off slow, scoring only five points to Rockville’s four. After the first quarter the Wolverines kicked the Rams off their mountain and took the lead, never looking back. They rebounded the ball and talked on the court ending the game with a score of 38-19.

“The more we communicated, the better we played throughout the game,” senior forward Rokhy Sidibe said. “We moved the ball a lot and played good defense, we made sure to get every rebound to transition every time.”

Girls basketball took on the Springbook Blue Devils last Friday, February 10. They fought hard throughout the game but fell short as they lost by three points with a score 36-39.  “I think we [needed] to play better defense and be more patient during the game,” freshman guard Jada Thornton said.

The Mill had a conference game against the Damascus Hornets on Tuesday, February 7 where they lost by a score of 34-42. The Lady ‘Rines were ahead in the first quarter, but later the Hornets overwhelmed the Wolverines and took the win. “Instead of calling plays we just put shots up, on offense we didn’t execute like we should’ve,” junior guard Connie Moody said.

When the team loses, the problem is often their communication skills on the court. “I think we need to work on our communication a lot more in practice so it can transfer to the game,” Thornton added. 

The Lady ‘Rines took four days to recuperate and took over the game when they faced the Seneca Valley Screamin’ Eagles on Tuesday, January 31. The score was tied at the end of the first quarter at 11-11, but coming into second quarter they took the lead and never looked back. Watkins Mill went on a 19-4 run to end the second half, and ended the game with a score of 55-34.

Defense was the key to winning this according to junior forward Princess Frazier. “Most of the time, they would dribble to the right side, so our help came over. This helped us a lot and if not they would have scored more,” Frazier said. “We took our time, we did what we had to do.”

Going into the second quarter junior guard Cameron Moore said the team had to, “change [their] mindset, [they] knew [they] had to go in strong.”

Girls basketball squad hosted a non-conference game against the Gaithersburg Trojans on Friday February 2. They fought hard against the Trojans but fell short of a win with a score of 56-35. “Gaithersburg is definitely an aggressive team,” Moody said. “We did not box out, and boxing out is a big factor when getting rebounds.”

Look for this girls basketball team to compete in the playoffs, and come out tonight to support the Lady ‘Rines as they take on the Blake Bengals at 6pm.