Coming off a three week break from games, head coach Matt Shulman said the Huskies were looking to come into the game with intensity and hoped to take control early. They did just that, as they established a 9-4 lead with 3:50 remaining in the first quarter. Shulman attributed the team’s early lead to executing the offense successfully and forcing pressure on the Jaguars.

“We wanted to pressure them and get in their face a little bit and I think that worked out pretty well,” Shulman said. “Our guards did a really good job knocking down some shots early and opening things up to get the ball into the post.”

Having had a lot of time to prepare for the game, freshman Lainie Douglas said the team did a good job at practice to get ready and executed what needed to be done very well.

“During practice, we did really good and we knew what to do for this game especially against [West’s] post since she was one of the best posts we’ve gone against this year,” Douglas said. 

Senior Megan Edwards said the team did a good job beginning the game with intensity, which allowed them to take a lead, but she said the offense could have done better in the second half. Edwards, who finished the game with 18 points, said she was proud of the team’s performance because the team was struggling at this point last year. 

“I think our offense could have executed better in the second half, but we definitely weren’t scared coming out tonight and I was proud of our performance,” Edwards said. “Last year was pretty rough around this time so it is nice to see that we have made a lot of improvements this year.”

Douglas led the Huskies with 19 points and said without playing well as a team it would be difficult to go out there and win, so she said it felt good to help out the team in any way possible.

“It feels good just to help the team in general because without playing as a team we could never win,” Douglas said.

After the Jaguars scored with two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, shortening the Huskies lead to five points, Shulman said he told the team to be patient and to make sure to take care of the ball.

“I was really stressing to the team that we need to be patient especially because we have a lot of young players,” Shulman said. “I knew if we took care of the ball and didn’t rush things we had the score and time in our favor and it would all work out.”

Edwards said the team knew that West would keep playing hard until the end, so they stayed strong and kept fighting to keep the lead.

“We just wanted to keep being persistent and keep being strong because West is a pretty good team as well, so we knew we needed to keep pushing down the stretch,” Edwards said.

The girls basketball team’s next game is Tuesday, Jan. 19 at home against Gardner Edgerton.