The Lady Saints earned themselves a first-round bye with excellent displays of basketball throughout the season. Coach Courtney Rook described what makes this group special this past week, “The defense, and how well they work together on the floor--their chemistry is great.” This group gets after it on the defensive end of the floor, and there was a stretch when they held their opponents for consecutive games to just single-digits.
This team is made up of Abby Mendoza, Brailyn Almand, Heaven Garcia, Laila Santifer, Lexi Crane, and Preslee Peck. “Our bond is really strong as we got that chemistry,” starting point guard Abby Mendoza said on Tuesday. Mendoza does a great job pushing the tempo ,and if you have been following this team this season, you would have noticed the number of turnovers this defense forces and the easy buckets that are created off these turnovers.
SWARK.Today reporter Heaven Garcia asked teammate Preslee Peck what the strengths of the team were. “How well we play together as a team ,and that each player plays their role to the best of their ability,” Peck said. Togetherness and team camaraderie have been a strong part of this unit all season.
Forward Laila Santifer was asked this past week to describe the defense. “We’re just scrappy. We like to play hard on defense.” If there is a loose-ball on the court you can bet that Laila Santifer and her teammates will be diving on the floor for the ball 100% of the time.
Brailyn Almand mentioned the team's emphasis on turning their defense into offense and their rebounding: “We feel like our best offense is when we score off of turnovers, but we also do a great job getting offensive rebounding and some put-back points.” The Lady Saints win the battle in the paint game after game with great rebounding from Preslee Peck, Brailyn Almand, Lexi Crane, and Laila Santifer. The two guards (Garcia and Mendoza) will also get in there and grab boards when needed.
“This group always comes out with a chip on their shoulder,” Coach Rook said about the way this team has carried themselves throughout the season. In addition, this team has a lot of the same players on it that just won a State Championship in Volleyball a few months ago.
When asked how special it would be to win a title in Volleyball and Basketball in the same season they all chipped in saying, “Let's go, and that would be great and a really special memory.” Laila Santifer sees that potential because of ways the team has improved, “We have improved on our communication and talking on the floor.” Being vocal on the floor paid a lot of dividends during volleyball and this team is having the same return in basketball season, whether it is from yelling, “cutter” or “switch” on the defensive end of the floor, or calling for a screen on offense.
Guard Heaven Garcia was asked about the reason for success this season, “We just play well together. We’re around each other all timeand that definitely makes a huge difference.” The one word that kept popping up while speaking with this group was “chemistry,” and it has been obvious the few times I was able to watch them play this season. They are a tough and scrappy group and they look forward to the challenge game after game.
The bracket is posted below in the article. Their first game is set for Tuesday at 6:20 p.m.. It’s tournament time for the Junior Lady Saints, so it’s win and advance or lose and go home. Look for this group to come out of the gates fast on Tuesday as they look to get back to their winning ways. This is a hungry and confident bunch and they have their sights set on one thing and one thing only, a State Championship!!!
