By Nicole Reich ’17

The girls’ varsity basketball team had their ups and downs during the regular season en route to an overall record of 10-12, earning the fifth seed in Section 2 of the Maryland 4A North Region.

The Warriors played Baltimore City’s Mergenthaler High School on February 27, in the first round of the playoffs, winning with a final score of 61-46. In the beginning of the game, the team started with strong intensity, making sure to share the ball and continue to defend. With seniors Bryse Thornwell and Allie Thron, and sophomore Madison Bliss absent from the game, the rest of the team had to step up and fill their positions. Senior Molly Halprin and junior Sammy Sundell contributed with their exceptional rebounding, Halprin with 13 and Sundell with 16.

“It was nice winning a playoff game, especially because we were the ‘underdogs.’ W+e won because we didn’t play to our competition, which hurts us in games like these,” said Sundell. “We just stayed focused on playing as best we could and treated it like any other game even though we didn’t have three of our starters.” The victory marked the second year in a row where the girls’ team won a road playoff game.

Junior Amanda Allen continued her run of dominating performances, with a career high of 34 points in the Mergenthaler game. Allen entered the playoffs after scoring 27 and 29 points in the final two games of the regular season. “This year I tried to step up and be more of a leader to help the team,” said Allen, who was recently featured in The Washington Post. “From the beginning, our goal was to be the best as a team by the end of the season and I think that [showed].”

After winning the first round of playoffs the team achieved their goal to “survive and advance,” said Coach Tim Hobbs. The team faced a more challenging opponent on March 1 at Baltimore City’s Western High School, and the Warriors were outmatched in the 57-29 loss. Allen finished with 8 and Sundell with 7 points. “Western was one of the best teams we played this year. [I’m] proud of the girls for how hard they competed throughout the game,” said Hobbs. “Unfortunately, Western was the better team and deserved to win.”