After a tight game, the Lady Hawks defeated the Derby Red Raiders in the Girls Varsity Basketball game on Thursday, February 7th, 2013. Throughout the first two quarter, the Hawks struggled to stay ahead of the Raiders, often only leading by a point or two.

Previously in the season, Woodland also defeated Derby. However, the Hawks beat the Raiders by a substantial amount the first time, 63-37. Overconfidence seems to have been the reason why the Hawks struggled to pull ahead throughout the entire game.

“As a team, we  came out flat and didn’t take them as serious as we should have,” said senior captain Nicole Fowler.

At the half, the game was left in a tie and the Hawks knew that they were going to have to step their game up to get the win over Derby. Not only was the game important for their record, the win over Derby would help guarantee the Hawks a spot in the NVL tournament.

During the second half of the game, the Hawks came together and changed the way the game was played during the first half.

“For the whole first half we made a lot of mistakes,” stated Fowler, “but after halftime we pulled ourselves together and did a lot better because we played as a team.”

Senior Alma Rizvani immediately changed the tone  of the third quarter game with a basket in the first minute of the third quarter. With a new mindset, the girls were ready to walk away with a win. But with the time lost in the first half, the store remained close.

With what seemed to be the longest thirty seconds to an end of a game, the Hawks finally walked away with a win, the final score being 55-49.

The Hawks acknowledged that they made a few mistakes, but are already learning from those mistakes and looking ahead to the next couple of days in the season.

“We’re preparing for our senior night game against Ansonia on Tuesday,” said Fowler, “and also for NVL’s and the state games coming up within the next few weeks of the game.”

To watch a full version of the game, click on the video above labeled Girls Basketball versus Derby.