SJND Girls Basketball Tournament in Antioch
Written by Jayla A. ‘27
Last week the girls basketball team had an overnight tournament in Antioch, CA. The tournament was at Cornerstone Christian High School and was three days in total. The girls left Friday afternoon during the school day and spent a few hours getting there. Of course they were excited but they were also nervous because it was their first big tournament. In this article, I will get into the stats of the games and the players’ ups and downs during the tournament.
The first game was on Friday night at 8pm against Concord, but the girls got there at 6:00 to go over the plays and have time to get their nerves out and just breathe and bond with each other. We all shared a few supportive words and things that we hope to accomplish during the game that night.
The Pilots won the game 50–26 against Concord. Before the game, one big concern for the girls was that some of our players were on the Kairos retreat and weren’t able to make the game until the next day. This meant that our starting five players (Izzy, Nia, Ana, Safah, and Bitaniya) were in for the majority of the game and never got to sit on the bench.
The first half of the game was going really well because our team was focused in and were playing super aggressively with no fouls. Izzy (class of ‘24) was scoring shots after shots after shots. She ended up scoring a total of 26 points that whole night, which is her highest record so far! Something that the girls struggled with overall was rebounding the ball. Coach Jackson was trying her very best to explain to them that they need to rebound and be ready to catch and pass the ball. No players fouled out for the Pilots.
In the second game against Deer Valley, everyone had good energy because of their win the night before. The first half of the game was going well because we were up by 10 points, but once Deer Valley started to step their game up they got into our team’s head and it started to throw their game off. The girls hustled very hard during the second half of the game, but the other team was still being aggressive and we were lacking that. Unfortunately after our great win the night before, we lost and the total score was 28–52. The girls took this as a learning experience and wanted to work harder the next game.
The last game against Ygnacio Valley was a little rough due to the loss of the game the day before, but the girls made sure to keep their heads high. Our starting five (Izzy, Malia, Safah, Ana, and Bitaniya) started off going strong, but the opposing team was really rough and knew good defensive keys. Two of their players fouled out the first half of the game and those were their main players and the coaches also got a technical foul. Melanie Martinez (class of ‘24) scored the most points (13) because she was super aggressive even though she had 2 fouls. I asked Ana (class of ‘27) how she felt about being a starter and here’s what she said: “I was really excited but also nervous because that meant I was playing their starters and I had no idea how they played because I couldn’t observe them while being on the bench first.” The final score ended up being 40–54 in favor of Ygnacio Valley, but even though it was a tough loss, the girls still had an amazing weekend away bonding.
The Pilots’ record now stands at 3–2 on the young season after two wins this past week against Urban and Leadership.
