By Rachel Mathys and Bryanna Stoiber, Reporters
With the odds stacked against them, the varsity girls basketball team is striving for excellence with tough conference match ups ahead.
“We feel confident about this team. In terms of the conference, this conference is very tough in girls’ basketball. We feel like we can compete night in and night out if we defend like we are capable of,” Coach Ernie Colombe said.
“We are taking things one game at a time and trying to focus on the next game.”
The Lady Knights have a young team with only two seniors, Kelly Evers and Liz Barnette, along with ten juniors.
Sophomore Lauren Zick joins second year sophomore varsity player Marina Schaefer on the team this year.
“Lauren brings us great defensive presence with her speed and quickness. She allows us to run more of our full-court presses,” Assistant Coach Tom Dillivan said.
“The highlight of the season so far probably is winning our tournament, because it’s the first time we’ve won a tournament in a long time,” junior Allyson O’Herron said.
The Lady Knights are 11-6 with a conference record of 5-2. Their only loss to their toughest match up yet, East Aurora.
“So far, East Aurora was our toughest game because of their size and athleticism,” said Colombe.
The defense played by the Lady Knights has been keeping them in the game. The team scores on average 38.5 points per game and holds their opponent to an average of 28.7 points per game.
“We need to shoot better and get in the right state of mind,” Evers said.
The Lady Knights went head to head with the defending conference champs, DeKalb, at Kaneland on Dec. 13 and lost a tough game 33-42.
The girls next game was non-conference foe the Lady Dukes which they won 61-55. The Lady Knights stayed active over the winter break with playing in the Plano tournament which they ended up only winning one game out of four.
The Lady Knights put that rough tournament behind them with crushing the Foxes 48-28.
The Lady Knights next conference would be at rochelle. Once again the team showed outstanding defense with holding rochelle to only 30 points and winning 38-30.
