December 18th, 2015

By Amber Taylor, Danika Meer, and Courtney Baker

 

With the 2015-2016 season well under way, the Phoenix Pirate girls basketball team look to improve their previous league record of 1-9. With the loss of key players along with their former head coach, this year’s team started fresh with plenty of new faces on the court, including new head coach, David Alexander. Although the Lady Pirates appear to be a young team, they have already shown many strengths in the little number of games they’ve played.

Last Friday, December 5, Phoenix hosted a boys and girls varsity tournament in which our girls took on Lakeview (2-6 overall). Lakeview proved to be a tough competitor to our girls basketball team, but the Lady Pirates battled the whole way through nonetheless. Phoenix ended the night with a razor-thin loss of 34-35. On Wednesday, the Lady Pirates had a surge during the fourth quarter at St. Mary’s (3-3 overall), but ultimately fell 42-52. Despite these losses, some outstanding talent was shown by the girls basketball team. Junior Kaylene Ritter scored 11 points and Bella Lopez added 10 points to contribute towards the fight against the Crusaders.

With Winter Break beginning tomorrow, it is safe to say most students at Phoenix High School will be sleeping for their two weeks off. Our basketball teams on the other hand, will be working tirelessly to prepare not only for their upcoming tournaments, but also for the start of conference games, which kick off at North Valley (3-1 overall), January 12. Tonight, however, the girls head to South Umpqua to take on the Lancers (1-5 overall) in another non-league game. The team holds high expectations for themselves going into tonight’s game. They hope to come home with their first win of the season to carry them straight into next week’s Southern Oregon Subaru Christmas Classic held at Cascade Christian High School. The girls game starts at 6pm tonight, so come out and support your Phoenix Pirate basketball teams!