The girls basketball team earned third place in the Southside Classic tournament after beating Mehlville High School 30-29 on Dec. 4.
In the quarterfinals on Dec. 1, the girls beat Affton High School 48-15. They then fell to Lindbergh High School on Dec. 2 in the semifinals 43-33, placing them in the third-place game. Junior Emily Cole, who led the team with eight rebounds in the game, said that she is proud of her teammates for working hard together to achieve third place.
“We are a relatively new team with new chemistry and I felt as if this tournament helped us develop and learn from each other even more. I am excited to keep improving and developing with my teammates to hopefully one day take the championship,” Cole said.
Junior Avery Vincent, who scored 13 points against Mehlville, said she was not upset about how they played overall.
“I think obviously going into any tournament the goal is to play in the championship. But most importantly, I think in those three games we grew a lot as a team and started to build that chemistry,” Vincent said “So, with time, there’s no doubt in my mind we will soon be playing for first.”
The Falcons kept a steady lead throughout the game. However, in the last three minutes, Mehlville tied up the score to 29-29. Cole said that when Mehlville tied up the game, she knew that this was a game that they could not take for granted.
“They put up a very good fight but I knew that our team had to focus and stay collective to beat them. We needed to be efficient with the time and smart and I was so proud of the girls on the court for handling that high-stress situation,” Cole said.
Senior Raina Bryant scored the free throw to push the girls back into the lead and to a win. Coach Dustin Hays said that he was happy with the girls performance in the tournament.
“This is a whole new group of girls that are playing together for the first time. It is going to take some time for us to get and start playing the way we want to, but we are making progress. The girls are playing hard and new girls are stepping up for us every game. I’m excited for us to keep getting better and to see how much more we improve,” Hays said.
