Girls Basketball ends its CCS run with a 57-44 loss to Hillsdale High School
Matadors eliminated in the quarterfinals of CCS for the second year in a row
Junior Carolyn Ruan looks for an open team member to pass to while two HHS players guard her.
February 27, 2023
Sophomore and forward Clara Fan looked up as the buzzer went off and the large black timers on either side of the Hillsdale High School gym displayed that there were 30 seconds left in the game. To her left, HHS’s coach had called a time-out, and in front of her, the score on the scoreboard read 57-44. Until then, Fan had kept the possibility of MVHS catching up to HHS in the back of her head, but now she knew the game was over and her team had lost. For this year, basketball season was over.
“Up until then I was like, ‘It’s only six more points, we can do it. That’s literally two [three-pointers]. We can do it and we have [about] four minutes, [so] six more points, that’s doable,’” Fan said. “I kept my head up during the timeout and kept fighting ‘til the end, because anything could happen. During the times where realistically we have lost already, we have to keep pushing and keep our heads up and not give up until the buzzer goes off.”
Varsity Girls Basketball lost to Hillsdale High School 57-44 on Tuesday, Feb. 21, in the quarterfinals of CCS. Although the Matadors started with a 16-11 lead in the first quarter, HHS was able to catch up and eventually surpass MVHS due to fouls that allowed HHS to score multiple free throws, with a halftime score of 23-22 and a third quarter score of 41-36.
According to Fan, MVHS started the first quarter strong, with the team able to steal the ball and make its shots successfully. However, while they had a lot of energy in the first quarter, it wasn’t as consistent in the second half of the game. Fan notes that HHS had a strong offense, so MVHS’s defense had to be at its best, and while “it could have been better,” Fan acknowledges that the team did everything it could.
“Knowing that my teammates were depending on me, especially since some of our players are injured, we had to play extra hard and I just kept on going,” Fan said. “I kept my energy up and kept running my hardest, even if my legs were hurting, because I knew it could be our last game. I wanted to leave it all out on the court and I didn’t want to have any regrets that I could have done better with this or I could have sprinted faster or something. I just wanted to control the things that I could control.”
Junior and center Sophia Lu agrees with Fan and is proud of the players for trying their best, especially in the second half where HHS benefited from several opportunities for free throws in what Lu felt were unfair calls on MVHS. However, Lu focuses on the future and says that the team will have to rebuild its chemistry and improve its communication next season.
“Last year, we were also eliminated in the quarterfinals like this year, and it’s not the best outcome,” Lu said. “Long term, I think we’re going to work on not repeating [our mistakes] and then making it further than we did this year. ”
Fan says that this loss “hurt more than other games” because it marked the last that she would ever play with the team’s seven graduating seniors. Since half the team consists of seniors, Fan says that next year will be different and a new start for the team.
“When the buzzer went off, it hit us that it would be our last game of the season and [our last time] playing with our seniors,” Fan said. “Each of the seniors played such a big role in the team. It’s hard to imagine not seeing them at practice every day or being able to play a game with them again.”
