On Monday, January 29th, Rocklin’s varsity girl’s basketball team faced a difficult 35-77 loss against Folsom in the large gym. Though the girls worked and played hard, this was a tough game and they played their best.
Junior Lily Hoff, when asked on what the team’s mindset was during the game, stated, “I think our mindset was definitely to better control their zone defense, because last time, we couldn’t really figure out how to score on their zone defense, so we watched film and just practice our zone offense a lot more.” Junior Cat Alston, who began playing basketball halfway through this season and is already on varsity, also described the team’s mindset was to, “Lock in and play good and win.” Coach Nathan Pattison also describes his mindset coming into the game, stating, “my mindset coming into tonight’s game is just focus on improving and developing. You know, we’re just worried about getting better every day, not necessarily the wins and the losses.”
Though the game ended up in a loss for the thunder, there still were some highlights. Alston states that the highlight of the team for her that night was that, “We played defense really well in the second, we started making our shots towards the end.” Coach Pattison also shared his point of view on the team’s highlight of the night, sharing, “What worked well [was] just staying within ourselves, doing what we know how to do, attacking the basket. When we’re aggressive, we’re doing great.” Hoff references team focus, stating, “When we communicated and rotated on help defense, our defense was a lot more productive, and also, when we moved the ball, did reversals and attacked, we were more likely to score and get better shot selection.”
Though the game ended in a tough loss, the girls on the team learned a lot from it and will continue to learn and grow through the season. While this game closed the door for a win, it opened a window for growth.
