The girls’ basketball season ended after losing in the NorCal regional semi-finals to Sacred Heart High School on March 12. The final score was 40-59.
Sacred Heart was ranked number one in the NorCal bracket.
Co-captain Courtney Seyranian said, “Sacred Heart is a really good team, but we did really well under the pressure. We never backed down, and we ran with them the entire game.” Seyranian thought the team did an especially good job handling Sacred Heart’s defense. “We broke their press really well. It was full court man-to-man, and we stayed calm under the pressure,” she explained.
The team fell behind in the 1st half 13-28, but ended the 3rd quarter at 32-44. Co-captain Laura Hickey said, “We didn’t do well in the 2nd quarter, but we came back in the 2nd half. We knew it would be hard to catch up, but we played with a lot of passion and energy, and we never gave up.”
According to Seyranian, Hickey’s layup and free throw shot at the end of the 3rd quarter was a big moment for the team. “We had a 12 point run at the end of the 3rd quarter. Laura’s play started it,” she said.
Hickey added, “The whole team did really well offensively.” Forward Rachel Riddle got 3 offensive rebounds in a row.
Hickey was happy with the Cougars’ performance during the last game. She said, “I thought we ended the season hard.” According to her, people did not think the team would be strong competitors this season. “I was really proud of us this year. No one expected us to go far, but we came in league and showed them we were strong contenders. In NCS and Norcal tournaments, we made our presence known and upset some teams. We really gave a lot of effort and hard work.”
Seyranian added, “We really came together as a team this year. We improved mentally and physically, and we never stopped believing in ourselves.”
The team loses 6 seniors to graduation. Even though Seyranian is graduating, she hopes the team will continue to “improve at the same rate we did this season.” She believes the team will work more on ball handling and boxing out.
