The Lady Spartan Basketball Squad beats the Rebels of South after being down by a hefty margin and follows up by pulling out a “W” against North.
Emily Cordes drives to the basket. photo by Kevin Fleming
On Friday January 23rd, the Lady Spartans traveled to South High School to take on their rival competitors, the South Rebels. The gym was packed on both sides of the court with fans cheering for their school. It was “Pack-the-House-Night” at South, so Thomas Jefferson High School brought a massive fan base to South to root for their fellow Spartans.
The girls started off slow and got into a halftime slump, letting the first half of the game slip away to the Rebels. At the end of the first half the outcome looked hopeless, being down by 17 points. “We’re going to win this game no matter what, and the way we are going to win this game is with our defense,” said Head Coach Steve Thomas at halftime in the locker room.
“We resorted to using a standard press defense to allow opportunities to get breakaways and score faster baskets,” explained Thomas.
The girls came out after halftime with a new spirit and a new game plan to contain the offense and to take the game and shift it in their favor.
One after the other, the girls were stealing balls and scoring points. With only seconds left to go in regulation, and the Spartans down by only one point, the plan was to get the ball to star player Sabrina Harris. The ball got passed around and with precision and confidence Harris took a long two point shot and connected, putting the Spartans up 42 – 41. As time ticked away the girls held the Rebels to win the game by only one point, completing a comeback that seemed unlikely at halftime.
“I am so proud of these girls. To overcome such a feat makes us feel and look like champions,” said Thomas.
The Vikings of Denver North heard about the Spartans’ big win and tried to prepare for the wrath of TJ.
On January 27th, the girls traveled to North High School for another league game showdown. Starting off slowly just like at the South game, the Spartans were able to hold the North Vikings to a total of 22 points. The girls were able to pull out another colossal win beating North 46 – 22. The win extended the Lady Spartan winning streak to 2 games and puts TJ’s conference record at 2-0.
“Even though we won, we still didn’t play as well as we would have liked to,” explained Thomas.
The girls’ next matchup is against Kennedy on Tuesday, Febraury 3rd at 7 pm at TJ.
