Two tough losses to start season spark future readjustments.
by Andrew Briss
photo by Kevin Fleming
On Thursday December 4th, the lady Spartans suited up and traveled to Widefield with ambitions high and ready to begin the season.
The Spartans started out sluggish, with the first quarter ending with a score of 17 – 6. The second quarter was more of the same, and halftime came with TJ trailing 38 – 8. Widefield never let up, and the girls ended up losing the game with a disappointing score of 76 – 23. “We played like rookies, and we did everything wrong. Nothing was working and we need a major readjustment,” commented Head Coach Steve Thomas.
“ We came in holding our heads up high, yet we lost focus, got cocky, and lost our composure, which let Widefield walk all over us like a sidewalk. It seemed like we were too worried about what we looked like instead of just playing the game that we are trained to do,” said Senior Sabrina Harris.
Harris and Senior Andrea Qualls each had six points to lead the Spartan offense, “Next game we better come out strong. This could be an exception because it was our first game, but we need to get our heads in the game and give Kent Denver a run for their money,” said Qualls.
With that said, the girls got ready for Kent the next day. Kent Denver arrived at TJ looking confident, but so were the Lady Spartans. After their disappointing loss the previous night, the girls wanted to prove themselves worthy against last season’s 14 – 10 Kent Denver Sun Devils. The girls had a total 180-degree turn around and played aggressive and composed, and led most of the game until the end of the third quarter. The girls started making costly mistakes and lost the game 40 – 36. “Nothing was working. Zones, press, man to man, all of these were not working. We led the whole game and fell apart at the end,” said Thomas.
The Spartans are without two starting varsity players, Junior Emily Cordes and Freshman Ashley Barry, who will both return in January. “We are trying to get through the growing pains and let the injury bug weave its course through our team, and get back on our feet as soon as possible,” Thomas exclaimed.
The next game for the Lady Spartans Basketball squad is against Rampart, Wednesday December 10th, at 7:00 pm at Rampart.
