The girls basketball team got back on the winning track Feb. 3 when it defeated Clarksburg 52-30 followed by a Feb. 7 58-43 win over Quince Orchard. The wins followed a Feb. 1 48-41 loss to Walter Johnson.
Against Quince Orchard, junior forward Erica Lindsay burst on to the scene with a game-high 19 points, and senior center Sarafina Arthur-Williams recorded 11 points. Senior point guard Kim Deausen chipped in nine. Against Clarksburg, junior guard Shira Racoosin led the scoring with 10 points, and Arthur-Williams followed up with nine points.
“Our senior leaders are doing really well and our younger players are developing and will be ready to make an impact in the playoffs,” coach Katelyn McMahon said.
The Bulldogs had a 13-game winning streak before falling to Walter Johnson 48-41 Feb. 1, as the two rivals battled it out with the division title at stake. Arthur-Williams led the scoring with 13 points. She was followed by Racoosin, who contributed seven points. Freshman guard Isabelle Wu and Lindsay chipped in six and five points respectively.
The Lady Bulldogs, now tied with WJ as winners of the division, have a record that now stands at 16-3, extremely impressive for a team that boasts only three seniors, lots of young players, and has dealt with a significant amount of injuries.
“No matter what, even if we are down, we play Churchill basketball and play hard until the end,” Racoosin said.
Previously, the Lady Bulldogs kept rolling in the wins despite not playing to their potential. They routed several opponents with relative ease and have swept a number of competitive teams.
“[It was] the first time we’ve been 14-2 since 2004, so we have way surpassed our goal,” Arthur-Williams said. “We have great chemistry and when someone is off, someone else is on.”
Before its loss to WJ, the team’s last win came Jan. 30 against Richard Montgomery, when it beat the Rockets by a slim four-point margin in Rockville despite an unimpressive performance. Racoosin led scoring with 18 points and Arthur-Williams came up with 12. Deausen added seven points.
“RM was a bad game because we had no energy,” Arthur-Williams said. “We tend to not prove to other teams we can kill them and that we are a far better team.”
In the team’s cancer benefit game Jan. 27, the Bulldogs once again came out with another flat performance. However, it did not stop the team from downing the Patriots 36-29. Arthur-Williams and Racoosin once again led the Lady Bulldogs with 17 and 11 points respectively.
“We played bad,” Arthur-Williams said. “No one could score, and our defense was bad, but we still won by seven.”
The Bulldogs have certainly shown that they are the dominant team in the county this season. Besides Whitman, the team has also swept Wootton, Bethesda Chevy-Chase (B-CC) and Richard Montgomery, beating each team twice this season. With a wide range of players each with different skill sets and only five season games remaining, each player is doing her best to contribute in some way.
“Everyone has been a standout player,” Racoosin said. “Every game there is a different leading scorer so we are versatile and there are a wide range of players who can do a lot of great things.”
