Girls basketball turns on the lights at senior night
January 27, 2020
The gym was more filled than normal on Thursday night; families and friends lined the stands ready to support Girls Varsity Basketball for their annual senior night. Their opponent was Edison High School, a team sure to bring suspense to the court.
Throughout the first half of the game, the Spartans were leading by a landslide; by the end of the first half, they were up by 20 points.
Suddenly, Edison electrified the court, and the 20-point lead turned into a 2-point lead. Many different Spartans guided the crowd through cheers to keep the tension high in the gym, including 9th grader Simon Assefa: “It was really fun to cheer them on and to have a lot of people there to support the seniors and the whole basketball team. […] The whole SPA crowd was on their feet and cheering so loudly. It was crazy.”
Junior Aman Rahman enjoyed the game: “The crowd was very rowdy but respectful at the same time. There were a lot of students there supporting the girl’s team which I think made the girl’s team very happy,” she said.
The gym erupted when 9th grader Lindsay Browne swished two free throws with less than a minute left in the last half. The Spartans had won the game: 59-57.
Every teammate got out of their seat and hugged in the middle of the court.
“[Senior night] was really good. It was an exciting game because we’ve been on a losing streak recently, so for senior night to be able to pull out a good win was exciting,” junior captain Rashmi Raveendran said.
The night was special for both seniors: Ayla Straub and captain Abby Hedberg.
Hedberg said: “It was awesome. The game was super fun and everyone had a lot of energy on both teams. We started out really strong and then fell down a bit towards the end, but we ended up pulling through and winning, so it was really special.”
The girls play at home Tuesday against Breck at 7 p.m.