Lady Colts Midseason Report
Hills West has a variety of sports, ranging from using your hands, to using golf putts or lacrosse sticks. Among the wide range of sports offered here at Hills West, we have the girls basketball team. The girls basketball team consists of eleven girls named Sara Brandsdofer, Gianna DeSabato, Joi Wilson, Jada Cooper, Channiah Baker, Dani Alpher, Emily Ross, Kayla Robertson, Anna Engelhardt, Charlotte Anton, Joelle Elsabeh, Jillian Weinstein, Tori Harris and Kayla Robertson. They are all coached by Bryan Dugan. It is safe to say that Dugan is definitely doing a good job with these girls since they have been winning most of their games and doing amazing performances out there in the court.
The team hopes that their peak performance will be during the playoffs! They are 3-3 in league IV, but they have a tough game against East Port, South Manor otherwise known as Deer Park!.
One of the games that stood out to many members of the team was the game they had played against Hills East. Coach Dugan recalls that they won by a “1 point on a 3 point shot by Samantha Hinke.” It was definitely a close game, in addition to a stressful one as well. However, our Hills West team had stayed calm and did what they had to do to bring the win home. Before the stellar shot made by Hinke, the Colts were down by two points, but the team called for a timeout and set up a new play, and they ran the play exactly how they planned it. Although, the first option was not available, the girls were able to play in their second and their options which led to the Hills West victory. Coach Dugan, is very proud of his girls and he claims that “That kind of poise and late game execution is critical if we are to have the kind of success we want.”
As for Kings Park and Bayshore, the team claims that they were both very competitive games. In the game against Bayshore, the team started the game off weak, being very careless with the ball. As Dugan recalls “We gave their best players free points.” However, they quickly redeemed themselves when the second half rolled around. They made adjustments to their game, and brought home another win.
The game against Kings Park was extremely competitive. They knew that this was a good team, since Kings Park won against them twice in the playoffs last year. The coaching staff had helped the team make a game, that they felt would help them win the game. In the first half, Kings Park and our team were very close together. As Dugan recalls “we held them to far fewer points than they are used to. ” Sadly, in the second half of the game, the Hills West team had turned the ball over a bit, which allowed the opposing team to gain points. Even though the game was a tough lost, Dugan hopes that this loss will fuel the girls and make them better players.
Their last game which was against Deer Park, Hills West won by one point was extremely tough. According to the team, it was never easy playing against Deer Park. The districts are very close together, and that causes an extremely competitive atmosphere. In addition to that, they knew that the Deer Park Team was coached extremely well. In the first half, the games atmosphere was full with tension, Dugan recalls that “the other team was giving us fits.” One of the teams best players Samantha Hinke had to go home because of illness. Hills West was seventeen points behind. Our team didn’t play well in defense and found themselves in foul trouble. Despite, the horrible events taken place, our team did not give up. They fought their way from seventeen to two points behind Deer Park.
They knew that the other coach was going to try to stop Tori Harris, who had made 35 shots and 22 rebounds. We brought home the win, because of one of the girls named Channiah who read the defense correctly. She took the big shot and scored the three-point shot. Channiah gave our team the lead in the game and a huge win!
