Girls varsity basketball is heading into the second half of their season with a record of 9-3, with losses to Frederick and McDonogh. The first half of the season has caused the team to reflect.

The team took the beginning half of the season to blend each player’s personal skills and talents together to make a more cohesive group. Every player has a role that they bring to the team, whether it’s rebounding, defense, or shooting. It’s important to have a mix of these talents on the court at all times.

The girls have looked back at the stats of all the games to see where they need to improve.

“We have a chart in the locker room with our stats of all our games. We looked and are shocked by our turnovers or surprised by our free throw percentage. It’s a great tool for speculation,” said senior point guard Sarah Twigg.

In the first few games the ladies had a tough time keeping their turnovers under 15 per game. In order to change this, they made a change in practice.

At practice during any drill if a player makes a bad pass, misses a layup, or has a turnover, they must take themselves out of the drill and run. This has made the team more disciplined, and that translates to the games.

“When we first started sprinting for our mistakes, I was happy that we were. It’s hard, but we needed it. We won’t win games with a crazy amount of turnovers. I want to win states this year, and we won’t if we don’t push ourselves in practice,” said senior captain Kara Probeyahn.

After an eye-opening loss to Frederick, 59-19, Linganore had to learn how to bounce back. In basketball it’s not about your last shot or last game, it’s about the next one. In the second game against Frederick, the loss was cut  down to 7 points and the girls played a tough game, back and forth.

The team also concentrates on shooting free throws every practice.

“In a close game it comes down to free throws. Free throws in the fourth quarter are what wins games,” said assistant coach Rick Conner.

In the game against the Oakdale bears, the score never furthered more than six points the entire game until the end. Linganore foul shots won the game for the team with a free throw percentage of 87.5, which won the game 47-40.

In the second half of the season the team wants to set their goals higher.

“The ultimate goal is to be a state champion. We have eight seniors on this team and it’s our last time to try. We want it bad and it’s our time,” said Probeyahn.

If the ladies basketball team does become a state champ, they will set  a record at Linganore with having five state champion titles in one school year.