The referee threw the ball up in the air as the clock started counting down from seven minutes. It was only quarter one.
On Monday, Jan. 22, Carlmont’s freshmen basketball team played Mercy’s junior varsity team. Carlmont won the jump at the beginning of the game but the ball went out of bounds on Carlmont. Mercy showed their aggressiveness from the start, not scared to get in between whoever was in their way of the ball. But Carlmont didn’t go down without a fight. Carlmont had an advantage with Mercy being so aggressive:
“We were able to get free throws,” said point guard and forward Cynthia Leong.
Free throws were something Carlmont had against Mercy. At the end of the second quarter and leading into half time, Mercy already had 10 fouls and was trailing behind Carlmont by six points.
Carlmont had great teamwork skills as they showed their ability to work coherently as a team while Mercy showed their ability to not listen to their coach when he’s yelling plays at them.
“We’ve been able to get to know each other through open gyms and team bonding ,” said shooting guard Maddy Stancil.
Carlmont huddles up during half time to converse.
According to point guard Keyanna Blos, to prepare for this game, they had practice everyday over winter break and went over plays the girls knew they’d be playing.
The freshmen had clearly been able to get to know each other, which is a big part in acting as a team. They communicate well on the court and show great sportsmanship. However, although Carlmont shows great skill, there are always things to improve on.
“We need to improve on our boxing out and stop telegraphing our passes,” Stancil said.
Whereas Stancil thinks they need to improve telegraphing their passes, Leong thinks they were able to telegraph their passes well.
“What we need to work on is getting more fouls, for example go towards the player [and] not avoid them to try and score,” Blos said.
Carlmont’s freshmen show great potential to turn into a truly amazing team. They pulled through and brought home another win to their name with an overall record of 11-2 and a conference record of 4-0.