Rinesa Kabashi staff writer
Girls varsity basketball earned themselves a ring on March 4, by defeating Pete Knight High School 43-36 in the Division 4A CIF Southern Section Championships. Freshman Arbri Gillis finished the game with scoring 20 points.
Even though the team was down by as many as 15 points leading into halftime, the players stepped up the level of play to finish out the fourth quarter with a seven point win.
Starting center Chantal Moawad knew that her teammates would come around and pull out the win, as they had several times before in earlier playoff games, including their 47-44 win over Foothill Tech which sent them to the championship game.
“We are a second half team, so usually this tends to happen in most of our games. I think we played more aggressively, yet carefully, in the second half. We didn’t have to worry about how many fouls we had, like we normally do,” Moawad said.
Forward Amanda Lee believes that this practice is what led to their ability to come back and ultimately be victorious.
“We had practice every day for two hours, on holidays and Saturday mornings. We bonded after weekend practices to really play as a team. It all paid off once we won,” Lee said.
It can be difficult to keep one’s composure during such an important game, but the bond the team has created throughout the season kept every single player focused until the very end.
“We relied on each other. Even when one of made a mistake we’d be down on ourselves, but we’d have our teammates for support. We all played with the same intention of winning, not for ourselves, but for each other,” Moawad said.
Their next home game is on March 8 against Viewpoint High School.