Ferocity is a key component when it comes to sports, and the Forest Hills Central girls varsity basketball team has displayed this perfectly. This Tuesday, December 5, the girls played an intense game against Hopkins; however, they came up short with a final score of 33-36.

Starting off the game, the girls came out with much force and scored the first points of the game. This gave the girls this motivation that was displayed throughout the first quarter. By the time the first quarter was up, the girls were in the lead 15-11; that drive was carried over into the second quarter as the girls continued to score and keep their lead. When the first half ended, they were still ahead with a score of 23-21.

However, when the second half came around, the diameter of how the girls played changed. Coach K explained this when she said, “We started off strong and shots were falling, but then struggled in the second half. Between missed shots and too many turnovers, we just couldn’t come away with the win.”

During the third quarter, the girls were able to start with a small advantage due to their lead, but that changed when Hopkins took the lead at 27-26. Once Hopkins gained that lead, they never allowed the Lady Rangers to grasp that advantage again. Although the girls weren’t able to take over the lead, they still put up a fight and kept everyone—both players and viewers—on their toes till the final buzzer.

Even with the loss, the girls were able to take away so much from this game. One player who not only contributed to a majority of the points gained 20 out of 33 points scored to be exact but also saw improvements from everyone was junior Maggie Sneider. “We know we need to put more shots up and clean up our turnovers,” Maggie said. “There are also a lot of positives to take away like that we played well as a team and we did much better with limiting our fouls and valuing possession of the ball.”

With these thoughts in mind, the girls are preparing and gearing up to go into their next game at home this Friday, December 9, against Thornapple Kellogg at 7 pm. The girls varsity basketball team is more than ready to go into this game with much competitiveness and hopefully come out with the first win of the season, while also focusing on improving their skills to gain this win.

“We are going to continue mastering our fundamentals for our next game as well as getting game-ready for pushing the pace of the game [against Thornapple Kellogg],” Maggie said.