Usually not many people go to the girls’ basketball games, but many had to go to this one. Tuesday, January 22 there were a good amount of heads on the gym bleachers watching the two main high schools in the Turlock district going head-to-head on the court. The three games were good, and although the frosh team lost 31-17, the junior varsity and varsity players played a great game.
Before the first game the starters were nervous because they were playing their biggest rival, but their coach said “..Nerves are a good thing..”, and unfortunately their coach was wrong. Throughout the game they weren’t doing so good. Their defense was 2-3 zone and played it well, but once they got back to offe6nse it didn’t go so well. After half time when they went back in they started getting better and making shots, but at the fourth quarter they went back to how they started, which wasn’t good. After that their game ended.
After freshman played the JV team was next. The players had good technique and played smart. Their coach kept changing players every time one wasn’t playing well or every time someone got tired and that looked as if that helped a lot. Our team didn’t foul a lot, Turlock was the team that made the most fouls during that game. Most of the fouls were on 21, the tallest player on the Pitman junior varsity team and that’s why she got many free throws. This team ended up winning 33-21.
Finally it was time for the last game of the day, the one that a lot more people showed up for. It was time for the varsity game. This game was the best of all, not just because it was varsity playing but because they tried their best versus Turlock. During the game they didn’t make a lot of fouls but they got some free throws in return. Most of their rivals fouls were also on their tallest player but some were because of hits or blocks. After halftime the game started to get a bit faster. the girls on court started to get more fouls.
There was even a time when one of our girls tripped and one of the opponents fell on her, but the referee called it and we that fouled us. Although Pitman won by 15 points there were a few moments when their opponent would catch up and tie with them but eventually our team kept scoring and got ahead by 30 and won 60-45.
The victories we got were probably due to the support we received from the crowd and from the family friends and teachers of our players. Some of the parents that ran the snack shop and another parent that made a raffle helped us a lot. The parent running the snack shop was selling some of the snacks and drinks that they usually have but they also had some extra things that day.
Coach Curtis decided to sell Pitman Basketball shirts that day along with cookies and cake pops, these were some new items. Then there was the other parent that took care of the raffle. The raffle was during the varsity game’s half time. Throughout the games some varsity and freshman girls help sell the tickets and ended up raising about $50 and the winner of the raffle was promised to get half of what they earned. The winner was the parents of a girl in the Turlock freshman team.
All the players that played had a good time, even if the freshman team lost, but the good thing is that that won’t be the last time we play versus Turlock. The next time we play against them will be February 7 at Turlock. So this means that Pitman frosh girls will have another chance to put more effort in the game and play smarter with more technique to beat their rivals, and junior varsity and varsity could use some or the technique they used a maybe add another to attempt to defeat them again.