Date: Jan. 3
Opponent: Valley Christian
Location: Home
Result: Country Day lost 68-39 to fall to 1-3.
Country Day scoring: Senior Heidi Johnson 29, sophomore Lindsay Burback 5, sophomore Anna Fluetsch 3, sophomore Naomi Cohen 2.
Inside info from Fluetsch: “I think we definitely need to be less scared of the ball. We get open and receive the ball, but then we panic. I feel like we forget that we can dribble instead of immediately passing it to Heidi or shooting.
“Another big issue in this game was the fact that we had so few players. We all got worn out and still gave it our all, but by the end, it was pretty clear that we were tired. Our playing reflected that tiredness.”
Inside info from point guard Johnson: “It was hard because we are on break and only had five players, but we gave it our all, so I’m not too upset. We really need to work on ball movement and rebounding, but I think we’ll pick it up once we have all players and recover from our time off school.”
Inside info from Cohen: “This game was hard because we only had five people, so that meant no subs. Valley Christian is a very fast-paced team, so we got really tired early in the game. We did lose, but it could have been worse for having no subs.
“Also, our passing wasn’t the best, so the ball got stolen quite a few times in the game.”
Comment by coach Latonia Pitts: “It’s always tough playing during winter break. We had five out of eight players on the court today. Valley Christian is always a tough team to go against because they have exceptional players.
“In this game, I saw that instinct needs to be quicker from the girls, and we can work on that by doing practice scenarios.
“We played pretty well and did better than I anticipated. The girls were tired, but you can tell that they played hard. We learned our mistakes from that game, and knowing those, we can prepare for Saturday’s game.”
Next game: Saturday, Jan. 5, 6 p.m., at home against Sacramento Adventist.
—By Sanjana Anand
