On Wednesday, March 2, the Berkley girls basketball team made the journey down to Renaissance High School in Detroit to face the Mumford Mustangs in their first game in the District championship.
Starting off the game at approximately 7 p.m the starting lineup races onto the court. Junior Ava Beard, junior Sammi Withrow, junior Maya Jones, sophomore Maeve Nolan, and senior Ashley Loon begin playing the first quarter. Just 52 seconds into the game, Loon makes the first free throw, putting the Bears in an automatic lead. Berkley keeps possession, not letting Mumford steal the ball yet. At about 3 minutes into the game, junior Jillian Gomes enters the court, taking out Jones.
At about four minutes into the first quarter, Beard gets the first three-pointer, making the score 4-0. Finally, making somewhat of a comeback, the Mustangs get their first point, a layup at about 6 minutes in. With tedious side shuffling, the Bears snatch the ball back, getting another point by Nolan. The 5-1 score quickly changes as Mumford gets their first three pointer, making the score 5-4. Quickly, the Bears take back a more significant lead, and Withrow gets her first three pointer at about 8:30. At about 11 minutes, senior Cassidy Gifford subs in for Withrow, and by the end of the first quarter, the score was 14-4, with three quarters left to go.
Ready to continue, Nolan, Gifford, Loon, Jones, and Gomes make their way out to the court. Jones scores a layup at the 15:00, making the score 15 to 5. Gifford makes a beautiful layup and makes a pass to Nolan who gets through numerous Mumford players, who then passes it to Jones, scoring a point at about 17:30. On the sidelines, Withrow and senior Aurora Sousanis await the time to sub in. by the 19-minute mark, the score is 21 to 6.
At about 21 minutes, Loon fakes out a few Mumford players who pass to sophomore Addison Hambright who gets the layup, making the score 22-6. After this, Mumford gets two free throws in a row, raising their score by 2 points. Freshman Maddy Bonsal and Sousanis enter the court as Mumford takes two more free throws, scoring them both. At 25 minutes, Loon takes a free throw for Berkley, scoring a point. Over the next few minutes, Nolan and Loon make a few more shots leaving the final score before halftime to be 28-17.
During halftime, I asked Captain Withrow what she thought about the game so far. In response, Withrow states, “I think we are doing a good job at making space and being consistent with our passes. If we keep it up, I think we will be able to stay on top of our game and advance to the next district game.”
To begin the third quarter, the same original starting lineup heads out, right away Jones makes a free throw and Mumford scores a three pointer about one minute in. With some quick passing, the ball makes its way to Loon, who scores a three-pointer, and Jones proceeds to score a free throw a few seconds later. About 4:30 in, the Bears call a quick timeout to reassess the current state of play, with a score of 32-27.
Returning to the play, Mumford takes two free throws, luckily missing both. As the clock continues to tick, Nolan scores 2 layups in only 15 seconds, and Mumford proceeds to get a layup. By the end of the third quarter, the score was 40-33, the Mustangs making a slight, but steady comeback.
Ready to play, the Bears and the Mustangs make their way back to the court, and right away Loon gets multiple free throws, putting the Bears in a more significant lead. With graceful passing from Withrow, to Hambright, to Loon, Berkley finishes with 3 more points from Loon. Back to Mumford, they get a quick free throw putting the score at 49-44 with only a few minutes left of the game. To finish the game, Nolan gets the last layup, making the final score 53-47, and the Bears advance to the next game in Districts.
Over the next week, the Bears played their next game in the District finals against Renaissance High school, and won that game too, taking home the Division 1 District Finals trophy. As their season proceeded, the Bears then played their first game in the regional tournaments, ending with an unfortunate loss. Over their many month season, the Berkley girls basketball team this year had a historic season, and speaking for the whole of the student body, we are proud of how far they went in their amazing season.