The Masuk girls’ basketball team played a great game at Masuk High School last night against Amistad Academy, winning with a score of 43-28. The game started off with a bang as they used great passing and communication skills in order to score a series of baskets. They were up many points on Amistad with a score of 12-4 thanks to one basket each from Bailey Bajda, Lauren Breyan, and Sami Dube, and two free throw shots from Hannah Fagan.
Going into the second quarter the girls continued to score multiple baskets, but Amistad was upping their game. With help from Fagan, with a series of free throws, a basket from Breyan, Natalie Lieto with two baskets, and Grace Kearney with an additional basket, the girls remained on top going into the second half of the game. Nonetheless, it was a close game at halftime, with Masuk up only two points on Amistad with a score of 24-22.
The girls continued to increase their strategy and performance going into the third quarter, starting off with multiple baskets and free throws from Bajda, helping masuk to gain a larger lead on the other team. With great passing throughout the team, the girls were able to score eight points in the third quarter, with two baskets made by Badja, one by Lieto, and one by Fagan. Though the team played great, Amistad still fought them for the victory, scoring an additional six points, bringing the score at the start of quarter four to 32-28. This meant that the girls had to give one last push in the fourth quarter to prevent Amistad from scoring any more points while continuing to score points themselves.
Going into the 4th quarter, the girls scored multiple points just as the quarter started, with Bajda, one of the team’s best assets, scoring three free throw points. The girls continued to play a great quarter, placing their focus on preventing the other team from scoring points, to which they were incredibly successful. The team kept Amistad from scoring any points in the fourth quarter but scored additional points thanks to a basket from Kearney; as well as 4 free throw points scored by Fagan. The girls finished off the game with a score of 43-28, beating Amistad by a long shot. Fagan comments that “What definitely won the game for us were our free throws, and we ran through our offensive plays a lot which helped us get movement off the ball.”
The girls left the game seemingly happy about the win, as well as appearing exhausted, having just played two games in the past two days, winning both. Coach Young comments that
“In that fourth quarter, we held them to no points so the defense kinda kicked in at the end. It was kind of a sluggish game, after two nights in a row it was hard to find a rhythm, but they came together and got the win.”
Hannah added that “We executed what we had to and we played a really good team game all around”. Young mentions that they can also “learn more about each other and how we fit, and ways that we can fill the lineup” for future games. Their next game will be a home game at Masuk High School on Jan. 12 against Weston.
Masuk Free Press 