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Basketball wins Districts, loses in Sectionals

Basketball+wins+Districts%2C+loses+in+Sectionals
by Cassie Florido, photos by Jordan Allen

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After winning Districts for the first time since 1998, the STA varsity basketball team lost to Blue Springs High School 56-42 in the Sectional game of the Class 5A State tournament March 6.

In order to advance to the Sectional game, the Stars defeated Lee’s Summit West High School 59-57 with a last second layup from freshman Rachel Allard to become the District 13 champions.

In the District game, the Stars came back from a double-digit lead in the second half to make the winning shot on a sideline out of bounds play with 7 seconds left.

Junior Paige Lankford said making it to the Sectional game meant a lot to the basketball program.

“The program has gone through ups and downs for the past few years,” Lankford said. “[Reaching the Sectional game] shows that we are getting back on track and are ready to win.”

Last year, the team’s winning record of 15-10 came after three years of losing records with only a combined 18 wins over those 3 years.

Senior Becca Lueke said the biggest factor in making it to the Sectional game was wanting to do something rare for STA basketball. Lueke said the team wanted to prove that they were a good team despite their losing record, 11-15.

At the Sectional game, the team came out to warm ups dressed in black shirts that sported the saying “Water the Bamboo.”

According to Lankford, this saying came from something head coach Chance Stephen read to the team before a couple of games last season and this season.

“It basically means you water a bamboo for a long time, like 3 years, and it doesn’t grow,” Lankford said. “Then finally one day after watering it for so long, it’ll grow a huge amount. We had a hard schedule this year and our coach kept telling us our time would come and we would grow like the bamboo.”

At Sectionals, the Stars faced off against a Blue Springs team that went 26-2 during the regular season.

At the end of the first quarter, STA was down 17-10. The Stars balanced out the score in the second quarter, finishing the half down 29-25.

However, Blue Springs went on a run in the third quarter, only allowing STA to score 3 points.

According to Lankford, once the Wildcats gained the lead, the team knew it would be hard to catch back up.

Lueke said the team played a good game even though the score didn’t reflect it.

“We shut down their main two players, which was our game goal, but other Blue Springs players stepped up that we did not expect,” Lueke said.

Freshman Grace Kitts said the team’s immediate reaction to the Sectional loss was disappointment in the loss and sadness due to the end of the season. However, after their coach came into the locker room and talked with the team, Kitts said the team realized all the good things they had accomplished this year.

“We realized even though we didn’t win [Sectionals], we played well,” Kitts said. “So we left the locker room a little sad but with a good outlook on our season and [Sectionals].”

The Stars finished the season with a record of 11-15, however the team advanced the deepest the program has gone in 15 years.

Just like with the “Water the Bamboo” saying, Lankford thinks their time finally came when they won Districts.

“We never put our heads down,” Lankford said. “We just had to keep playing each game as hard as we could.”

Lueke said this is a powerful team that will continue to grow.

“For many years in the past, we have just been pushed to the side,” Lueke said. “But we are slowly rebuilding the team and making a strong program.”

 

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