Park girls basketball played Apple Valley Jan. 4. Park maintained a relative lead throughout the game against Apple Valley, ultimately winning by 14 points with a final score of 66-52.
Head coach John Hayes said Park’s goal going into the game was to keep the force on Apple Valley and create ball turnovers during the game.
“We wanted to put a lot of ball pressure on their handlers, we thought that we could frustrate a lot of their primary ball handlers and foster a lot of turnovers, and then run them off those turnovers,” Hayes said.
Senior Gabby Fadden said the win felt good, as the win marked the teams first victory in a couple of games. She said Park hopes to maintain definite scoring and a positive outlook in the future.
“The game went good, it was our first win in a while, so it’s nice to finally get a win under our belt,” Fadden said. “(Looking forward), we are just going to keep points up and keep a good attitude.”
Senior Bella Miller said the game was an improvement in comparison to their past performances because practices have been intense and the team has been setting goals for their games.
“The game went way better than what we have been playing this season, and we played good defense today,” Miller said. “We’ve been practicing hard and also setting goals before the game and executing them.”
Hayes said the team’s resilience has been showing during the season, irrespective of whoever their opponent is, or the results of the game.
“Our strengths (this season) have been being resilient and continuing to show up and work hard regardless of the opponent or the outcome of the game,” Hayes said. “We’re continuing to work together to play with max effort every time we step onto the floor and just move on the ball offensively.”
Miller said while the team’s defense was strong during the game, the team needs to improve its offense for future games.
“Our defense was good this game, and we need to continue playing good defense for our future games,” Miller said. “Our team needs to improve and get better on offense.”
During the game, Apple Valley visitors and spectators engaged in noticeable discourse in response to calls made during the game. According to Fadden, Park disregarded the comments and continued playing the game.
“We had a lot of commotion in the stands today during the game, which was interesting, but we tried to ignore it and just keep playing the game that we play,” Fadden said.
Hayes said the atmosphere of the game was unusual, noting the discourse shouted in the stands. Hayes said the team’s eyes remained on the goal.
“(It was) an interesting game, our opposing team had two technical fouls, a fan got kicked out, it was just weird energy for a noon game on a Saturday, but overall we were fine,” Hayes said. “Our next goal is to take down Bloomington Jefferson in our first conference game of the year.”
Park girls basketball plays against Bloomington Jefferson at 7 p.m. Jan. 7 at home.
