The Carlmont girls basketball team defeated the Fremont Firebirds in the semi-finals of CCS on Feb. 23.
The first quarter of the game started out quickly when the Firebirds won the jump, but Carlmont beat them back on defense.
Junior Hannah Wright stole the ball from the Firebirds, earning Carlmont a possession. As the Scots ran their offensive, the ball got to the middle of the key, but was filtered out to freshman Jayla Chee. Chee was able to drive to the basket and score a lay-up for the first two points of the game.
After Carlmont scored the first two points, the team immediately arranged themselves in a full court press, stealing the ball again.
The Scots defense was strong and able to consistently get the ball back from the Firebirds. However, their sloppy passes through the key resulted in many turnovers, which allowed Fremont to have a comeback in the end of the first quarter by scoring eight points in two minutes.
Chee scored six of 10 points for Carlmont, putting them ahead by seven at the end of the first.
“I feel awesome about how we were playing, and overall I’m really happy with all of the shots I was able to get off and contribute to my team,” said Chee.
The rest of the first half was one-sided as the Scots continued to get the ball back, scoring 17 points in the second quarter. Their defense was successful with over six blocks and deflections as well as dominating in offensive and defensive rebounds.
The second half begun and Chee made another basket right away. Carlmont seemed to be keeping a higher lead, but also gave up a lot turnovers, repeating their passing from the first quarter.
Many fouls were called on the Firebirds throughout the third and fourth quarter, which gave the Scots a lot of opportunities at the line and to score extra points.
By the start of the fourth quarter the score was 50-28, putting the Scots ahead by 22 points.
“I think I played really well. We really stepped it up on our defense from our last game,” said freshman Ashley Trierweiler
Both teams scored throughout the fourth quarter as the girls grew tired and the defense began losing strength.
The game ended with the final score of 65-39 with Carlmont taking the victory.
“This is my first year playing with Carlmont and my first time playing in CCS, so I think it’s really cool to continue this with my team and experience this as a freshman,” said Trierweiler.
Carlmont’s girls varsity basketball team will now continue onto the second round of CCS.
“It feels amazing to be moving onto the next round. If we want to be successful we have to have a winning mentality. Every game we play will get harder and we need to continue to stay focused and play as a team like we have been throughout the regular season,” said junior Alexa Bayangos.
