The eighth-grade girls’ basketball team ended the season with a 16-4 record and pushed through bad games with their heads held high.
“Apart from when we lost to the seventh graders, I think our bad [times during the season] when we didn’t do too well were our most memorable because we worked really hard and when we were angry,” said eighth-grade student Olivia Benjamin-MacDonald. “We bonded more as a team.”
On March fourth, the team finished the LSSA festival at Hillingdon with a total record of 3-1. The team lost against ACS Hillingdon 27-10. The team had already beaten Hillingdon twice in the regular season, so even though ASL lost against the team, they came out of the tournament positive and feeling confident. “We had nothing to hang our heads about,” said coach Wendy Kraft. “They were just the better team that day.”
The team’s trip to Aberdeen from February 7-9 was another memorable part of the season. However, as the team had 14 players and only 10 could go to the tournament, four of the players stayed behind. “[Aberdeen] was a really neat experience, but it would have been better if the whole team could have come and shared it with us,” said eighth-grade student Madeline Bataille.
ASL had been down one point during the fourth quarter of their first game against ACS Egham. Bataille passed the ball to player Louisa Linkas, who scored a lay up in the last second of the fourth quarter, winning the game by one point, putting ASL on top with a victory of 14-13. “It was a pivotal point not just because we won, but rather because we won by coming from behind,” said coach Kraft. “Never in the entire season did we come from behind like that to win the game.”
They came second in their tournament, after losing their second game against the Panthers, 12-2. Though the ASL team ran their offense as usual and were able to make it down the court, they could not get any shots in. “That was quite frustrating because we had a lot of great looks but we just didn’t get there,” said coach Wendy Kraft.
This year’s team still managed to come out of the season with top marks. They worked well together and stayed positive the whole time. Mrs. Kraft said, “they really wanted to do well, for themselves maybe, for the team, for the coach, for their parents, or their friends but it was just a fun group of girls to work with.”
