By Jenny Tran
On Tuesday, Jan. 17, the Barons girls’ basketball team won in a game against Newport Harbor with a score of 34-29. While they won, the game was defined by close shots and grapples for the ball, both teams struggling to gain possession of the ball.
“Our team just struggled making baskets. We just struggled. Like, everybody was off,” head coach Marianne Karp said. “I’m looking forward to the game where everybody is hitting baskets, making them. But it just seemed tonight like we really struggled finding somebody to score for us.”
The game started off with a tip-off to the Barons, followed by senior Mary Nguyen sweeping in the first shot of the game at 6:58. After a back-and-forth between the teams, senior Malia Kawakubo added two more points to the score.
The Sailors made their first basket at a foul, then continued with another three-pointer. After another few minutes of quick passes between both teams, the first quarter ended with a close score of 9-7.
The second quarter found a more intense gameplay, with the ball persistently switching between the teams. Several fouls from both sides defined this period, allowing more points to be stacked up in that regard. However, a lot of the attempted shots ultimately fell short with both sides being strong on defense.
“What we were trying to do was just put a lot of pressure on them as opposed to letting them get it in first,” Karp said. “So, I thought we were successful with that.”
At 7:17, sophomore Candice Tran made a two-pointer, then continued to sneak in a steal when the Sailors were on offense. The Sailors scored two points, then the ball proceeded to shift between the teams for most of the remaining time.
Nguyen finished the quarter by making two shots at a foul, furthuring the Barons’ lead to 21-11.
After half-time, a more aggressive performance transpired, both the Barons and the Sailors on each other’s heels. After freshman Sophie Hsieh slipped in three points and Kawakubo rebounded, the Sailors managed to tally up several more points through two-pointers and foul shots.
In the final minute of the quarter, a series of brisk passes between the Barons arose. However, no shots were made in this stretch of time, and the score ended with 29-19, the Baron’s still maintaining their lead.
“Sometimes we don’t finish our shots. I think sometimes in this game, we drove the lane, which is good, but they’re too tall,” Karp said. “Like sometimes, you can get around them a little bit, but then we’d have to pull up for a mid-range…And we weren’t necessarily making our outside shots. We kind of got ourselves in trouble because we weren’t shooting well.”
The Sailors came back intensely at the beginning of the fourth quarter, succeeding in several shots and closing the gap in the score. Nguyen eventually ceased this streak at 5:30 with a two-pointer, tipping the score to 31-25.
A three-pointer from junior Melody Nishi at 3:10 was quickly followed by more shots from the other team. The last few moments evoked high emotions, with both teams trying to gain possession of the ball and gain favor of the scoreboard.
In the end, the Barons managed to keep up their continual lead, ending the game at 34-29.
“Every game we play I’m hopeful that I see more unity amongst the players,” Karp said. “Moving forward, we’ve got a tough game against Marina coming up. They’re gonna be really aggressive. And we have to prepare for that.”
