The girls’ basketball team took the court on Dec. 5 at Magruder in Rockville. It was the team’s opening game and they showed they weren’t messing around.

From the opening tip the team played well together. The team played strong, cohesive team basketball and displayed great chemistry considering it was the first game of the season. The team was led by senior point guard Katie Gillick and sophomore post player Sivan Bennaim and ended up winning the game 67-37, dominating through and through. “Katie and Sivan obviously played really well and their level of play definitely helped us win by the amount we did. It’s always a good feeling to go out and win your first game of the regular season by 30 points, that’s for sure,” junior Mary Quackenbush said.

The team passed the ball well and had a strong day on the backboard as they dominated in rebounding. “Overall I would say the team played really well, especially for our first regular season game. We felt as if we played really hard out there and that the score reflected our effort. If we play that well every game then we will definitely be a tough team to beat,” Gillick said.

Three days later, the team hosted Poolesville. At the time Poolesville was also undefeated with one win. They had beaten Northwood 76-30 on the road. Poolesville continued their dominance as they ended up beating Wootton 77-43. Wootton was outscored in three out of the four quarters with the exception being the fourth quarter when each team scored 10 points. In both the first and third quarter, Poolesville scored at least twice as much as Wootton. In the first, they scored 30 to Wootton’s 15 and in the third they scored 21 to Wootton’s 10.

Despite the huge loss, the team still shot the ball fairly well. The big difference maker in this game was the size of Poolesville. Poolesville’s size advantage gave them a rebounding advantage, which is something they exploited all game. In addition to their rebounding, the team had trouble with Poolesville’s defensive press. “We definitely struggled at getting rebounds today. They were bigger than us so that was certainly a disadvantage we had to deal with. Also they pressed really well so that was another thing that was tough to deal with. Even though we lost big, all in all I think we played pretty well. They just played better. We played with a lot of effort and most of the teams we go up against won’t be as good as them,” senior Zoey Goldberg said.

Sam Greene

Senior Sports Editor