The Mathews High School varsity girls’ basketball team fell in a 40-39 thriller last Thursday on the road against the Westmoreland Eagles. After a couple of cancellations due to the weather, the MHS girls’ next home game will be this Friday against Northampton.
Before the varsity contest, the JV teams took to the court with the Westmoreland Eagles dominating. The JV Devils started in the wrong direction, trailing 14-6 at the half, eventually falling 24-14.
The varsity Lady Devils were excited coming into this game and ready to redeem themselves from the scrimmage they competed in with the Eagles earlier in the season.
The Devils started off strong winning the opening tipoff and going back and forth with the Eagles for the first quarter. Going into the second quarter was very similar, with lots of fouls being called for each team. The Devils went into the locker room at halftime with their heads held high, leading 26-22. They came back ready to dominate the second half. The third quarter was filled with lots of tips and steals, making the opposing Eagles frustrated and more vulnerable to mistakes. The quarter also saw some minor injuries that took a couple of the Devils players out for part of the game, but they recovered fast and jumped back in with ease. Starting the fourth quarter down by one lit a fire in the Devils that already had a spark and fought hard to get ahead. At 20 seconds left to play, the Lady Devils trailed, 40-37, with the opposing team at the foul line, a shot was put up and a rebound by Lyla Duff let her push the ball down the court with a pass to Elizabeth Moore putting it up at the 3-point line. Her miss was rebounded by Hailey Love trying to get it up quick. Love’s miss fell right into Brianna Thomas’s hands. With 4.3 seconds left, Thomas made her shot making the score 40-39, got fouled which put her at the foul line. Thomas ended up missing her foul shot forcing Mathews to foul right away and falling short to the Eagles.
The top scorers of the night were Moore with 23 points and Adrianna Forrest with six points. The Devils were proud of themselves and how much they improved from their previous scrimmage against the Eagles.
“We have a really young team this year, and we have only been improving every practice and game we have faced. I can’t wait to see what the future of this season holds for us,” said Duff, the team’s captain.
This past Friday’s game against Northumberland was postponed to Dec. 15 with Monday’s contest against Colonial Beach postponed to an as-yet undetermined date.
This Friday’s home game will begin with a JV contest at 5:30 p.m., followed by the varsity contest at 7 o’clock.