On Thursday, January 3, the Sturgis East girl’s varsity basketball team played at Upper Cape Tech. The final score to this game was 56-36 in favor of UCT. Even though Sturgis lost by 20, junior Captain Brittany Gayton felt really good about the game, “ Overall, I felt like we’re starting to really pull together as a team. We fought the entire game and that's really all you can ask for. It's the little mistakes that are really getting us but we are working on them.” That goes to show how a loss can also be a moral victory. Sophomore Captain Meaghan Fitzgerald had 16 points in an outstanding effort, but the defense was a bit shaky for the Storm as they allowed 56 points. The offense wasn't bad but wasn't great, scoring 36 as they made little mistakes that proved to be too costly to overcome. Gayton mentioned that the team would continue to work to improve on these minor errors in practice.
On Saturday, January 5, Sturgis played Cape Cod Academy at home. Again, the storm couldn't come out on top and lost 42-35 in a very close game. Again, Meaghan Fitzgerald was the leading scorer with 11 points, but sophomore Emma-Kate Nemes had a season-high 11 points as well. The storm played very aggressively on defense and made CCA panic and cause turnovers. Sturgis had the lead for the first three quarters, but in the fourth quarter they made silly mistakes and gave the game away. In the past few games, it has seemed to be these silly mistakes that have caused the Storm to lose these games. Looking ahead, these mistakes will have to get fixed if the Storm want to at least qualify for the state tournament.
On Tuesday, January 8, the Storm took on an always-challenging Nantucket team at Nantucket and lost 55-23, once again showing a proneness to “silly mistakes.” Nantucket recorded an astonishing 27 steals as they used their full-court press strategy in the second quarter to generate turnovers and score many points on fast-break layups. On the bright side for the Storm, sophomore Maggie Randall stepped up her game and tallied 8 points.
The girls next played Sturgis West.. East got their first win of the season, winning 37-25. Meaghan Fitzgerald had an outstanding game as she lit up the scoreboard with 21 points. Brittany Gayton added 7 points. The Storm's defense was very key in winning the game. Their full court press was outstanding. “We probably scored half our points from them turning the ball over,” said Gayton when asked about the press. Sturgis West also used the full court press and Sturgis East did struggle with breaking it but overall it was team defense that won this game. Their defensive strategy, other than the press, was working very well. The played man on the two guards for West, then set up a 3 person zone with the three other girls that weren't playing man. For West, it was really hard to get the ball in the guards hands because they were being played 1 on 1 instead of the zone. Gayton also praised the team for getting their first win, saying, “ Overall, it was a really good game for us. Everyone was motivated and dedicated.” The Storm look to continue their impressive defense and look to get a win streak going.
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