After a dominant win against San Jose HS, the MVHS varsity girls basketball team suffered a one-sided loss to Mountain View HS on Dec. 14. According to captain and senior Ashley Liu, the team directed its focus on effective rebounding and communication coming into the game. However, she believes the team wasn’t able to execute these goals. 

“I think a really major flaw for us that we’ve had all season is [that] we tend to miss really easy shots, like wide-open layups or contested layups or short jumpers,” Liu said. “[The] high was [that] there are certain defenses that work[ed] really well like presses.”

MVHS girl’s basketball faced Mountain View HS in its league matchup on Jan. 14. Throughout the game, the Matadors struggled defensively ultimately losing 31-52 to the Spartans. Photos by Anish Vasudevan pic.twitter.com/6aQSMDJq6d

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MVHS struggled to maintain possession and score the entire game, making only four points in the third quarter. The team was unable to keep possession of the ball, which resulted in them mostly scoring on fastbreaks and free throws. Despite these struggles, the team was able to make a significant adjustment in the fourth quarter by switching their defense from a zone to man defense. 

“I think the fourth quarter stood out the most because, in the beginning, we were kind of slow, but then when we switched to man …  we were just more hyped and more energized to play,” Liu said. “Maybe it was the end of the game, maybe it’s just because we were down by so much, we wanted to push harder.”

Similarly, sophomore Siri Adusumilli believes the team’s energy levels varied throughout the game. 

“I think the energy levels are a little bit low in the game and especially the beginning of the game,” Adusumilli said. “We started to pick it up, [but] we didn’t pick it up fast enough.”

Moving forward Liu hopes to better control the game with her years of varsity experiences so her teammates would be less frazzled while playing. 

“I think as a team moving forward, we just need to play together more, play with more heart, and just want to be here,” Liu said.

Watch Game Highlights Here: