After a month plagued by injuries, the girls basketball team dropped three consecutive games, putting a significant dent in its otherwise impressive season with a record of 11-9.
Due to the injuries of top scoring junior forward Sarafina Arthur-Williams, sophomore forward Erica Lindsay and junior guard Emma Barnett, the Bulldogs have had a hard time winning games. They lost to Northwest, B-CC and Wootton, and later fell to Whitman and Gaithersburg.
“It’s been a rough couple of weeks,” head coach Katelyn McMahon said. “But the girls seem to be in good spirits despite all of the injuries.”
The Lady Bulldogs fell to Gaithersburg Feb. 11. Despite the strong play of sophomore Shira Racoosin, the Bulldogs trailed the entire game and could not make up for the absence of Arthur-Williams, who was sidelined with an ankle injury. The game came to a dramatic close when, in the fourth quarter, Lindsay suffered an extreme ankle sprain, which led to the arrival of paramedics who took her to the hospital.
“We played pretty good on offense, but our defense was off,” junior point guard Kim Deausen said. “The loss of Erica is bad, considering we already have two other hurt players.”
Due to Arthur-William’s injury, the Bulldogs were forced to compensate in their match against Whitman, and fell to the Vikings by one in a hotly contested game. They trailed by 15 points throughout the beginning of the game, but then made a tremendous comeback, leading by one with 16 seconds remaining. However, after a Whitman layup with nine seconds left, the Bulldogs could not manage to regain their lead, despite a trip to the foul line by senior point guard Leeda Jewayni with six seconds remaining.
“We didn’t play badly against Whitman, we just had some let downs,” Deausen said. “Plus the fact that we didn’t have [Arthur-Williams] made things rough, but [senior forward] Molly [Coleman] really stepped up.”
After an impressive five game winning streak, the team’s streak was snapped Jan. 24 as it succumbed to Northwest 33-47. The loss was the beginning of a small imperfection in the Lady Bulldogs highly successful season, which peaked when they beat rival Wootton Jan. 4 in a nail biter that ended when junior guard Jill Beauregard put up a winning three-point shot with one second left.
“We’ve had a really good season so far,” Beauregard said. “We’ve definitely jelled as a team both on and off the court, and it has really helped us win.”
The Lady Bulldogs followed up their loss to Northwest with consecutive losses to B-CC and Wootton, both teams they had beaten earlier in the season. A bright spot came Feb. 1, when the Bulldogs, spearheaded by Beauregard’s 21 points, beat Walter Johnson 58-54. They followed up with a Feb. 6 win against Richard Montgomery.
“Our defense has been one of our weaker points,” Deausen said. “During the Wootton game, we did a good job of moving the ball around on offense, but we got outrebounded and didn’t execute as well as Wootton did.”
During the Bulldogs’ second match against Wootton, Arthur-Williams went down late in the game with an ankle injury, sidelining her for the Whitman game.
The Lady Bulldogs faced Seneca Valley Feb. 18 and Paint Branch Feb. 22.
