The WIS Middle School Girls basketball team fell 25-19 to the Waldorf Knights in the PVAC quarterfinal thriller, despite a stellar, 11 point performance by Riley Contee. This caps off the Red Devils season, ending with a 3-4 record.
In the first few minutes of the game, Waldorf was taking control of the possession and moving the ball around the court. Neither offense could get anything going with WIS ending the quarter with a 3-2 lead.
Waldorf started the second quarter off strong with a three-pointer by C. Braun. Waldorf started taking control when they threw in a very strong press, which led to many turnover by the Devils. After the Knights started gaining control, WIS started playing very aggressive defense which eventually lead them into foul trouble. The second half started off with two deep threes by L. Jawdat and A. Logan of Waldorf. Waldorf didn’t score again until the fourth quarter.
The Knights went into the fourth with a 15-13 lead. They continued their dominance briefly and made a layup. This was followed by a strong and-1 layup by Contee. Unfortunately, she was not able to complete the three point play.
With around 40 seconds left, Waldorf had a small 19-18 lead. WIS had possession and Contee drove to the basket and went up for a layup, the layup rimmed out and the rebound was grabbed by Anya Jacoby, who put the ball right back up to secure a one point lead for the Devils.
After a few timeouts by Waldorf, the Knights had the ball with 14 seconds left, Waldorf’s star point guard Logan, took the ball down the court and WIS guard Sofia Roche went for the steal and got a reach-in foul called. This was very bad for the Devils. It put the Knights in the bonus, and fouled out Roche. Logan took her bonus shots and made one, tying up the game. WIS failed to make the final shot, so the game went into overtime.
The Devils couldn’t do anything against Waldorf in OT as they dominated those three minutes. The Knights scored six points and held WIS to none.
Despite this tough, season-ending loss, you WIS basketball fans still have a lot to hope for. Next year Roche and Contee will be in eighth grade and will be great leaders for the team. Also, a new class of players will be coming in to help the team. The players are excited about this. “We are really hoping to get new players and to have more experience,” Roche said after the game, “I think that it would be great for the inexperienced Devils to have a more experienced team leadership.”
This loss was a heartbreaker, but the WIS Red Devils Girls Middle School Basketball team has a promising future.
By Saul Pink and Liam Byrne
