The Arcadia High School (AHS) Girls Frosh Soph Basketball Team took on the Lake Elsinore High School (LEHS) basketball team on Nov 21. 

In the beginning of the game, there were a lot of turnovers, but AHS picked up the pace with a layup from number 32, freshmen Essie Woods. AHS was playing a zone-hybrid defense, where players helped to play defense without a designated defender. This type of defense led to multiple steals in the first quarter. Freshman starter point guard Isabelle Chan got fouled on a drive to the basket and made one free throw. Chan followed that up with another layup, ending the first quarter with three points. The first quarter ended with claps from the crowd with a score of 9-2.

LEHS continued their three point barrage in the second quarter, which momentarily caught the AHS girls off guard. AHS’ number 10 freshmen Wenmeng Zhang stole the ball and made a layup to increase their lead to 15-11. At the end of the half, Chan made another layup, ending the half with 17-11.

Despite being down at the beginning of the third quarter, LEHS did not give up and scored four points in the span of a minute, with two from number three. Afterwards, AHS Coach Adam Conover called a timeout; this break allowed the Lady Apaches to rally back stronger than ever with back to back lay ups from Chan.

“I think our team did well at applying things we learned in practice, but we definitely got nervous as it was our first game,” said freshman Vincy Yeung. 

At the start of the fourth quarter, Chan had another two points by a mid range jumper, to extend the lead to 24 – 15. Following a five minute drought in which both teams played excellent defense, Chan hit a tough mid range to extend the lead to 11. After a couple of back and forth possessions, Woods got fouled and converted one of two free throws. 

“I could have worked on making better passes to my teammates to set them up for good shots, and work on finishing at the rim. Overall, this was a good first game of my high school career,” said Chan, who scored 11 points.

“The girls as a team have worked extremely hard, and even though some of them were nervous, they played well and it shows in the outcome, “ said Coach Conover.

The AHS Girls Frosh Soph basketball team won the game 27-15 and advanced their season record 1-1.