Carlmont’s varsity girls basketball team fought hard until the end, with a 56-52 win against the Aragon Dons on Jan. 25.
Despite the Dons having a strong start in the first half, the Scots were able to close that gap in the last minutes of the game.
Aragon maintained their lead in the second and third quarters, staying about four to a six-points ahead. However, as the game progressed, the Scots were able able to widdle down their opponents lead to nothing, and eventually took the lead as the game reached its final minutes.
Despite being down most of the game, the head coach for Carlmont’s team, Richard Stephens, remained confident in his team’s strategy from the beginning.
“We knew we could handle their pressure early and also apply pressure on them so we could eventually wear them down, which gave us the advantage and the reason why Aragon committed several fouls,” Stephens said. “All we had to do was hope we could eventually wear them down, and that just happened to be at the last minute, and it was very close.”
The first quarter ended with a score of 10-10, with neither the Scots nor the Dons able to pull away with any significant lead.
The Dons were able to take the lead in the second quarter, however, by the time the third quarter rolled around, they began to foul in excess.
According to Beth Parangan, an Aragon senior, the Dons began to make careless mistakes, especially towards the last minutes of the fourth quarter.
“I feel like we made a lot of fouls and missed out on many opportunities such as rebounds,” Parangan said. “We could also fix our mistakes such as our lack of control and our hand-level passes.”
The last quarter of the game was when the Scots made their comeback and eventually took the lead. Aragon committed a number of fouls which was partially the cause of their loss, totaling more than 20.
Arianna Delrooz, a junior for Carlmont, believed they played poorly in the second and third quarters and that she and her teammates did not grasp the opportunities presented, but were able to take control in the fourth quarter.
“We did not go according to the plan at the first half, but we were able to take control at the second half,” Delrooz said.
Coach Sam Manu of the Aragon girls varsity basketball team saw this loss and the contributing factors to the loss as a great opportunity to learn from.
“We can definitely learn from our poor decision-making from this game along with our defense,” Manu said. “This loss does not feel great, but it will definitely help us.”
