On October 26, the girls basketball team started off their season with a scrimmage against Hamilton Southeastern. The Panthers won the second quarter with a final score of 20-19, but lost the other three quarters. 

For the first three quarters, the varsity teams played against each other. However, in the last quarter, the junior varsity teams faced each other. 

The coaches and players had been preparing for this scrimmage since tryouts, and their efforts were put to show in their performance. 

“HSE played great yesterday,” senior Kaitlyn Hoff said, “We beat them in the second quarter and really showed how we’ve been working on getting better this year, but they showed us out the rest of the game.”

Last year, the girls team ended their season with an 8-15 record. This year, with different drills and players, the team hopes to improve their ratio. 

“This scrimmage was our first time really playing together as a team with pressure put on us, so as the season advances, I think we’ll get better,” Hoff said.

This season, with new starters and three freshmen on the varsity team, the team has to learn how to effectively play together as a team.

“HSE has a few really good players, so now we know their skill sets and how to work with those. If we play them again this year, we’ll know who to watch out for and have a better chance of beating them,” Hoff said. 

NC did not play Hamilton Southeastern in a regular season game last season, so they had no background expectations of how the school would play. 

“The scrimmage was fun and a great way to start the season,” Hoff said, “I liked watching the JV games play against each other in the last quarter. That was really entertaining for the rest of the team.” 

The varsity teams sat behind both benches in the last quarter, cheering and supporting their individual teams. As the season goes on, the team will improve with more practices and games.