Junior forward Stephanie Lichtenauer has been a member of the varsity girls team since freshman year and is one of the top scorers currently. During the El Dorado tournament, on Thursday, Jan. 26-Saturday, Jan. 28 she had one game where she scored 27 points, her all time best.

The team has a record of 12-3, with a winning streak of 12 games. The season started off with three losses, but the team has improved since then.

“I think that we’ve been playing really good and playing together and we overcame a lot of struggles we had early in the season,” Lichtenauer said. “We limited our turnovers and we’ve been playing stronger with the ball.”

The varsity team this year is predominantly junior girls and Lichtenauer has been playing with many of them since before high school, some of them since second grade.

“It’s fun because we’ve all been playing together for years and because we get to spend our whole high school basketball career with pretty much the same people,” she said.

The team’s winning streak has been a positive experience for Lichtenauer.

“Well it’s always fun when we win. We’re always really excited,” she said. “It feels good to know all your hard work really paid off.”

Lichtenauer’s experience with high school basketball has overall been a good one. Not only has she had a chance to continue to build on lifelong friendships, but she’s also been given the chance to improve as a player.

“We have really good coaching. Coach [John] McFall is really awesome,” Lichtenauer said. “We have fun but we still work hard every day.”

In order to be successful though, Lichtenauer has a few rituals she has to complete before every game.

“I always eat the same meal before the game, a turkey sandwich with bread my dad makes,” Lichtenauer said. “I always have to roll [junior] Tanner [Tripp]’s shooter shirt sleeves up before every game.”