photo by Karissa Caldera
ABOVE: A JV player makes a cut with the ball during the game against O’Connor.
The Holmes varsity girls basketball season has finally begun. Under new coaching, there has been changes made fundamentally and environmentally. They have participated in two tournaments, as well as two scrimmages, in preparation for district. Here’s a recap on their first two district games.
The girls first opponent for their district season was the O’Connor panthers. After putting up a tough battle, the team fell short of a victory. However, girls head basketball coach Gerald McCaslin maintains a positive mindset on their overall season.
“Coming out of the O’Connor game, I felt optimistic about where we’re headed. I felt like we have a lot of things to work on, but coming from where we were, we’re definitely progressing better,” McCaslin said.
Coach McCaslin highlights two players who aided the team in staying in the game, junior post player Amaya West and senior guard and defender Ruth Tanajara.
“[West] did the best. She was definitely on the boards. She scored a lot for us. Defensively, she was in all the right positions. She played their top player, Hemphill, really well,” McCaslin said. “I would also have to give credit to Ruth, who was able to guard their best guard throughout the whole game and really make it difficult for her to score.”
Their second opponent was the John Jay mustangs.
Coach McCaslin tells us how the girls looked offensively and defensively during their game.
“Defensively, we did really good. The defense is coming exactly like I want it to. Teams are having a really hard time getting into the paint. They only scored 37 points, and they were averaging 50-60 points a game, so we were able to hold them well under their regular field goal percentage,” McCaslin said.
“Offensively, we were able to get into our sets pretty good. We were a lot more aggressive than we previously had been. We missed a lot of easy buckets, which is why we ended up losing. However, with the girls learning a new system and philosophy on how to run offense, it’s to be expected right now. They’re still trying to learn where their opportunities are in their offense,” McCaslin said.
All teams make mistakes during their games. However, the girls coach is bringing a new system to approach the turnovers that occur in their games.
“We actually had a goal set to be under a certain number of turnovers, but we didn’t reach that goal. We got more than I would have liked, but they weren’t regular type of turnovers. We had one girl who consistently turned over the ball, but that was because she was in a position to have the ball the majority of the time, which caused her to have to make more plays during the game. Going forward, we’re going to make sure we provide opportunities for them not to turn the ball over because that’s a big emphasis for us as a team,” McCaslin said.