Both the Boys and Girls Basketball teams participated in various tournaments over the course of winter break.
The Girls Basketball team participated in the Crusader Christmas Classic and the Academy of the Holy Names Holiday Tournament. Their coach, Carrie Mahon, believes the team performed well.
“We had two great tournaments over break,” Mahon said. “We got our first loss, which was a great learning experience against Tampa Catholic in their own tournament. We won two overtime games in those tournaments. It was a great growth experience for our team, to get those overtime games under our belt, to actually play in a Championship Game at Academy, whose bleachers were very packed, and it was a different environment that we have played in sometimes here with not a whole lot of people in the stands. We really had the opportunity to grow over the holidays, which is awesome because you don’t have to worry about school because there is really none of that going on.”
Regarding the loss to Tampa Catholic, Mahon says one player in particular caused an issue for a team, along with a few fouls that she believes weren’t called by the referee.
“They have a really big post player and we struggled to get her stopped,” Mahon said. “The fouls were a little bit out of whack in that game, we had 21 and they had 12. I felt that she was really shoving us around and there were some fouls there that weren’t called. All in all, we had to adjust to several different defenses and try several different players on her. It was kind of a great Chess match for us to be in. It was a six point game, but it was a lot closer than that.”
The Boys Basketball did not perform as well in the City of Tampa Tournament. According to Coach Cameron Coleman, the team did not perform to his standards in regards to their overall performance, having finished the tournament with a 1-2 record. However, the team did meet Coleman’s standards when regarding their effort and team bonding.
“Not quite as related to execution, but as for effort and coming together from the first game to the last goes, yes, they exceeded my expectations,” Coleman said.
Just as Mahon mentioned how the Girls’ team bonded throughout the tournaments, Coleman said the same thing regarding the Boys’ team.
“I think they grew closer,” Coleman said.