The girls basketball team has been working hard and improving every day of their season. With a current record of 12-6, the girls have currently been on a two-win streak after defeating Zionsville and Franklin Central.
“I feel that the season so far is going well,” senior K’Ja Talley said. “Every game we are getting better as a team.”
Continuing their season, the Lady Warriors have faced teams like Heritage Christian, Gary West Side and Avon over winter break, pulling off both close and strong wins for the Warrior Nation. On Jan. 21, the ladies hosted the Gary West Side Cougars and had a strong offensive and defensive game scoring 73 points while keeping the Cougars to a low score of 26. The following Friday, the Lady Warriors competed in a tournament playing Heritage Christian and Avon and were able to defeat both schools. While facing the Defenders from Heritage Christian, the Lady Warriors kept them from a fourth-quarter comeback as time ran out and the Warriors came out on top 45-43. Later in the day the Warriors took on the Avon Orioles and in a thrilling game finished victorious 57-53. Talley helped to lead the Warriors to victory with a team-high of 19 points against the Orioles, the highest of any girl from either team.
With this three-game win streak, the ladies traveled to Fishers, Indiana the following week to take on Hamilton Southeastern. While the team played hard against a strong, top ranked opponent, they were unable to come out with the win they needed to continue their streak, and ultimately fell to the Royals 40-31. However, the team has already been using this loss as motivation to improve as they approach the end of their season.
Next, the Lady Warriors hosted Zionsville and were able to secure an impressive win, 83-25, restarting their winning streak going into the end of their season.
“We plan to keep this streak going as the end of the season approaches by cleaning up the small things like turnovers, forcing our offense and fouls,” Talley said. “If we keep those three things under control then we can make it far.”
While the Lady Warriors are having success with their season, they have been working hard during practices to improve upon their weaknesses and better develop their skills. The team takes few days off as they drive hard into the remainder of their season and prepare to face other tough opponents in the IHSAA state tournament. The team wants to make it back to the state tournament after missing the opportunity to return and be back to back State Champions.
“Some of the games we have lost were less than 10 points and they were all against top ranked teams in the state. We have put in a lot of work and held top-ranked teams under their scoring average with our excellent defense,” Talley said. “We have received lots of compliments from other coaches and teams about our defense and some schools are wanting to know how we do it.”
However, besides trying to make it to far into the IHSAA State Tournament, the girls are also trying to work on other things such as their energy going into the second half of the game.
“This is where the game-changer is going to happen at,” Talley said. “So as the season comes closer to the end, we need to work on coming out how we started.