As November comes to a close and the football fields’ lights dim, basketball courts all around the county come to life, marking the start of the basketball season. McLean’s court saw its first glance of the girls varsity team on Thursday, Dec. 1st, as the Highlanders faced off against the Broad Run Spartans.
McLean came into the game after a solid 51-35 victory at Westfield on Nov. 29, already setting the tone for a strong start to their season.
“We feel good,” McLean head coach Jen Sobota said. “We worked on some things that we didn’t do so well against Westfield, and we typically play well at home.”
After the final line of The Star Spangled Banner finished echoing throughout the gym, each team’s starting five took to the court; the ball was tossed, the fans and coaches started screaming and the clock started ticking.
Right from their first possession, the Highlanders showed off their fast paced play, constantly attacking the paint and punishing the Spartans’ slow-moving defense by freeing up players on the perimeter. Senior point guard Shushan Krikorian was an offensive catalyst for the team, displaying her versatility as both a finisher and an assisting force.
The team’s aggressive playstyle was mirrored on the other side of the ball, with senior forward Brooke Thomas and sophomore Vilte Kacerauskaite constantly contesting balls and forcing tough shots when the Spartans could find a crack in their woman to woman approach.
The first quarter ended with the Highlanders winning 19-8, but McLean played the entire second quarter as though they were down by two points with 20 seconds remaining in the game. Broad Run attempted to counter the Highlander defense with more ball movement, and while there was scattered success, there were also plenty of stolen balls that resulted in easy fast break layups for the ‘Ders.
On offense, Sobota let her players really turn on the jets—there were moments where players were just running straight to the basket, letting Krikorian flex her speed and athleticism while giving players like Thomas and sophomore Allyson Hodder the opportunity to bully the Spartans from the midrange.
The story of the first half was dominant; the Highlanders felt like they were pushing their opponents around, mercilessly shoving their way to basket after basket while simultaneously making the Spartans work for every inch gained. The game entered halftime with McLean leading 39-17.
The 10 minute intermission did not stop the Highlanders whatsoever. If anything, more players caught fire. Krikorian continued her pummeling offense, and senior Kara Bremser found her spot at the corners of the court. Any time she had the ball in her hands, she couldn’t miss, splashing three pointer after three pointer after three pointer.
Paired with the continued challenges that McLean was causing Broad Run’s offense, this quarter was the certified nail in the coffin, ending with the home team leading from 63-26.
By this point, the fourth quarter felt like a formality, but again, the Highlanders were playing as though they were behind. They did, however, begin to let their foot off the gas a bit towards the latter half of the quarter, though that didn’t stop them from casually tearing apart the Spartan defense and easily holding them to a single digit scoreline throughout the final eight minutes.
The game ended with a final score of 77-32, an absolute stomp by the Highlander squad off the back of blindingly fast paced play and aggression that the Spartans couldn’t handle.
“Our team this year is very fast, so we like to push the ball a lot more,” Krikorian said.
McLean will play their next game on Saturday, Dec. 3, where they face off against Madison-James at McLean.
