Girls basketball falls to St. James at home
The Lady Jags were defeated 53-39 on Friday, Feb. 3
February 6, 2017
The Lady Jags fell to St. James Thunder 53-39 at home on Friday, Feb. 3.
The girls had won the previous night against Blue Valley West 53-40, and according to sophomore Claire Kaifes, this provided confidence going into the game on Friday.
“I was a little worried because we didn’t get a lot of prep time, but other than that I felt very confident, Kaifes said. “We played really well yesterday, and I guess it just didn’t carry over.”
According to head coach Drew Walters, the lack of preparation time was a factor in the game, but not the reason they lost.
“We didn’t have practice time before, since we played yesterday,” Walte
rs said. “I do not believe we brought the amount of intensity needed to play tonight, and we weren’t geared up to go.”
Ending the first quarter 15-5 with Saint James in the lead, the Lady Jags could never close the gap, although they came close with a six point difference in the fourth quarter.
Kaifes believes there are multiple factors they could have improved on to win the game.
“It’s pretty disappointing,” Kaifes said. “I feel like we could’ve beat them if we’d limited our turnovers, played better team basketball [and] moved the ball a bit more.”
Junior Addie Hinkle believes the team wasn’t as solid in their offense tonight, and is a part of why they lost.
“It’s really disappointing just because I know our team could’ve beat them,” Hinkle said. “Our shots just weren’t falling through and we got into our heads and it just went downhill from there.”
According to Kaifes, next week’s game against Gardner-Edgerton is one they
need to win, and the team needs to work on their defense to achieve that.
“We’ve lost to them two times before, so we’re really going to work on our defense since that was really a weakness tonight,” Kaifes said. “We’re really going to just prep for Gardner-Edgerton as best as we can and show up Tuesday night and do our thing.”
The Lady Jags play Gardner Edgerton on Tuesday, Feb. 7 at home.
