Staff Writer
Photos By Raj Jain
The Girls Varsity Basketball took a win in their league opener against Blair High School 86-9 on Wednesday, January 14.
Junior guard Kristen Kafkaloff kicked off the game with a three-pointer from the top of the key. However, Blair responded back with a two-pointer. Both teams dug in and neither side was able to get a shot until senior guard Lexie Scholtz knocked down two free-throws and paved the way for the girls. From there the Tigers took the first quarter by storm with 27 points. The team kept up the intensity into the second quarter, with senior center Sophia Hathaway taking away the key from Blair and dominating the board.
The girls started the third quarter with their high energy and kept up the pressure against Blair. With point after point, the girls took the quarter and knocked down 31 points, with Kafkaloff putting in 13 points the third quarter. From there, the girls began to take advantage of their lead and ran down the clock, subbing out starters starters and playing less aggressive. Blair made their only three-pointer of the game in the fourth quarter with a final score of 86-9.
“I’m happy with how we played today,” Coach Tammy Lai said. “[The game] started off a little slow, but once we picked up our defensive intensity, we were able to run our transition offense. We didn’t rebound well in our last game so we worked on that this past week.”
Kafkaloff was the leading scorer with 26 points, followed by Hathaway and Scholtz with 16 and 18 points, respectively. Takahama finished with 9 points alongside senior guard Taryn Kato with 7 points and sophomore guard Jalynne Li with 6 points. Freshman guard Maddie Saito took home 4 points.
The girls will be taking on school rival La Cañada on Friday, January 16 at 5:15. Last year the Tigers split in the meeting with the Spartans, with each team winning one game.