The girls basketball team begins to see what they have been training for the last couple of months. Starting in the fall with workouts and conditioning, continuing to preseason training, following through with practices and games; all for these moments. The extra ounce of effort at the end of a practice, training session, or game has all been to improve them for this tournament: MSHSAA Class 5 Districts.

This is the start to the highly anticipated end.

The tournament began Feb. 25 with quarterfinalist team Hazelwood West playing Pattonville. For those who define a team based on the score, Pattonville definitely walked away the better team with a score of 63-37.

And yesterday, Feb. 26, the Lady Spartans played the Pattonville Pirates in semifinals. With winning the district tournament in mind, our team played exceptionally well, winning the game 49-30. This advanced the girls overall record to 22-4 and puts them in the championship game.

As far as how the team picked up this victory, sophomore Gracie Stugart attributes the success to hard work.

“I think our team really worked well together, shared the ball, and found open teammates up the court,” Stugart said. “We also put a lot of pressure on them forcing turnovers and deflections. Finally, we played as a team not as individuals.”

The championship game will be Friday against Hazelwood Central. With such an important game on the line, the crowd grows exponentially for this night. For sophomore Sophie Delaney, she feels the crowd enjoys watching the game just as much as she enjoys competing in it.

“For districts, the competition is better overall. I feel like that makes the crowd more hype and more excited to watch us play,” Delaney said.

Come out and support our girls varsity basketball team for the championship game at Francis Howell Central and in the words od Delaney, get “hype” for some intense competition and hopefully a spartan victory.

If you are unable to come, turn on notifications for our activity director’s twitter to receive minute by minute updates about the game.