Face contorted in concentration, senior Nadia Amadi goes for a layup at the playoff basketball game against Plano East Senior High School. The varsity girls basketball team this year made it to the second round of the district playoffs and ended the season as bi-district champions and area finalists.

“We were down a lot, and I just had to keep pushing no matter what,” Amadi said. “Once you’re in the game talking on defense and offense, you don’t even think, you just keep going.”

Several seniors on the varsity team graduated the year before. This year’s team had to do some work to get to know each other.

“The seniors and the upperclassmen just took care of me, and it was a really fun experience,” freshman Averie Farrell said.

Farrell is one of two freshmen on the team and eight total underclassmen. Many members of the team feel proud of making it to the play-offs and winning the first game considering how many of them are underclassmen.

“I know lots of people doubted us because of how young we were, and especially because we lost a lot of seniors, so I feel like it was unbelievable at first, and then the excitement set in,” junior Laila Jackson said.

The lack of prior experience proved to be a challenge for the team, and the coaches helped develop the team.

“The only challenge I would say this year was the fact that we were a younger team and they didn’t have the experience, so we had to do our best to challenge them and improve their skill, improve their IQ,” head basketball coach Kelly Dansby said.

The team got through their difficulties and finished with an overall score of 17-14.

“Facing the tough teams was like, definitely a struggle, but like we definitely pushed through it, and we improved so much,” Farrell said.

The graduating seniors have high hopes for the underclassmen next year.

“I hope they’re district champs next season, ‘cause we have a really strong team coming,” Amadi said.