Varsity girls basketball redeems rematch against Monta Vista
On Tuesday, January 24, the Los Altos High School varsity girls basketball team beat the Monta Vista High School Matadors 52–36 in a home league game. Three weeks prior, the Eagles played the Matadors in an away game and lost 32–42. This game was their chance for redemption.
The Eagles opened the first quarter with a strong lead and widened the gap even further by halftime, where the score was 25–13. Holding both a strong defense and offense, they’d racked up a 42–24 lead by the end of the third quarter.
But the Matadors began closing that gap, little by little, in the fourth quarter.
“We knew what [the opposing team] was doing,” head coach Erik Stuart said. “At our last game against Monta Vista, we didn’t play with enough energy; we were a little too cautious. This time, we had to go at them and fight and wrestle them.”
And wrestle, they did. Seeing their lead shrink, the Eagles were quick to respond, making sure they didn’t make the same mistakes as before. Holding their defenses tight, they ran the ball back and forth, killing time while preventing either team from scoring.
While the game clock counted down, the score remained at a standstill, and the Eagles’ upcoming victory became evident.
“I knew that we had a really off game before with Monta Vista,” senior Tessa Player said. “But today we all just came out confident. We knew it was more about improving ourselves than worrying about the other team, and it really just worked out.”
“For us, it was just, ‘let’s get out of here and be happy about it,’” Stuart said. “At that point, I wasn’t too concerned about [the opponent] winning, there was too little time and too big of a [score] gap.”
Those final minutes seemed to take forever to pass as timeout after timeout was called.
“Honestly, there wasn’t much else to put out [on the court],” Stuart said. “So we just went over things like ‘don’t get injured, don’t get into a fight… if they punch you, don’t punch back’ sort of things. And that’s what got ‘em laughing.”
Finally, the Eagles claimed the victory, winning 52–36.
They’ll carry this mindset into the remainder of their games this season.
“To me, at all times, the score’s 0–0,” Tessa said. “You can’t get comfortable. Basketball’s a tough game, so you just gotta play hard the whole time and never let up.”
The Eagles will play the Jefferson High School Grizzlies in a non-league home game on Saturday, January 28.
