Girls’ Basketball Picks Up Pace for Start of Season

KEVIN KONG
Sports Editor

Starting the new winter season with a preseason record of 6-10, the varsity girls’ basketball team is continuing their intensive practices in order to stay conditioned for the season.

The Lady Moors kicked off the season with two losses in their Almont League games against the Temple City Rams and the
Bell Garden Lancers, making their season record 0-2 and their overall record of 6-12.

The team begins practice daily by warming up and then proceeds to work on individual skills. The team’s regimen continues, working on shooting drills, free throws and drills created to improve both the Moors’ offensive and defensive skills.

“Our team’s strengths [are] hustling and being scrappy out on the court. Our defense creates our offense. Our team is working on new plays to work with during the season and is preparing to play good defense,” captain Miyako Martinez said.

According to Martinez, the Lady Moors are working on a new defensive strategy, which combines the more traditional man-to-man match up with the relatively new zone/area defense. As a smaller team, Martinez also pointed out that most points scored by the Moors were created by capitalizing on turnovers from opponents’ mistakes.

“We don’t really talk on the court. If you don’t talk on the court, then you don’t know what is going on with the team so sometimes, the team messes up and gets a turnover. During practice, [Head] Coach [Erick Williams] is always telling us to talk more,” junior power forward Kaile Wu said.

As the Moors continue to practice in order to improve on both their defensive strategy and their areas of improvement, such as free throws and communication, they will simultaneously face opponents.

The Moors’ next league game will be on Jan. 24 against the Schurr Spartans at 5:15 p.m in the school’s big gym.