Comebacks can be a challenging thing in sports; however, the Forest Hills Central girls varsity basketball team did just that this past Friday, January 13. They won against the Northview Wildcats in overtime with a score of 65-59.

Going into this game, the girls were super excited to perform against one of their largest rivals: Northview. Due to this positive energy before the game, the girls went into their first quarter strong. By the end of the first period, the Lady Rangers were up but they still had Northview hot on their tails with a score of 19-17.

As the game progressed and moved into the second quarter, the girls started to gain more confidence in their plays from not only the players on the court but from the bench as well. “We had a lot of positivity on the court and the bench,” junior Zenash Cumings said. “Our team is very supportive of each other and we stay positive focusing on what we can do to improve.” And because of this, the girls were able to pull away from the Wildcats at the end of the first quarter with a score of 32-25.

However, FHC was not able to keep that lead for long. Northview came into the third quarter hot and ready. This would later lead to a back-and-forth between the two teams to stay in the lead, but Northview would take the lead at the end of the third quarter, 43-41.

Even with Northview in the lead going into the fourth quarter, the girls knew that they weren’t ready to give up that easily. In this quarter, there would be a ping-pong effect of one team taking the lead and then the other team coming back. And as the clock started to tick closer to 0:00, everyone in the gym started to get on their toes with anticipation of who is going to come out with the win, but no one would come out with a win just yet at the end of the final quarter due to a tie of 57-57. 

After the fourth buzzer went off, the girls ran into a huddle and realized what needed to be done to come out of this battle with the win: defense. “We came out really strong defensively at the end which helped us pull through,” Zenash said. “Especially the defensive steals in the last four minutes.” Due to the strong defense that the girls played with the four final minutes in overtime, they came out with a well-deserved victory against the Northview Wildcats. 

Although they are ecstatic over this memorable win, they understand that this is not the end and more improvement has to be done. The girls can look at this game not only as a victory but as a way to improve as well.

“We are constantly going through our defense to make sure that we can help each other and make sure we don’t give the other team easy points,” Zenash stated. “Offensive we will prepare by putting up a lot of shots at practice so we can shoot confidently.”

Even though the girls can see and incorporate what needs to be done to perform better on the court, they are still taking this win under their belts and the confidence boost that this gave to them into their next game. The next game that they will be playing is at home against Grand Rapids Christan on Tuesday, January 17, at 7 pm. Make sure to make it out and support our Lady Rangers for a hopeful victory!