The girls’ varsity basketball team went into this year with something to prove. Having consistently fallen just short of their goals in the DCIAA and DCSAA tournaments the last few years, the Tigers, led by new leadership, had their minds set on a championship.
Contrary to the low roster turnover, the coaching staff was completely replaced. Stephon Seraile stepped in as head coach, alongside assistant coaches Aireon Boone, Dave Mason, Lawrence Leonard, and Kelly Oeltjenbruns. “My biggest takeaway is seeing the girls gel together since I first got here,” said Mason. “Everyday coming to practice is something new, we have a great time together and just being a part of their lives as coaches is special.”
Although the team fell short of their goals this season as semifinalists in both the city and state tournaments, the Tigers finished 17-7 overall.
To begin the year, their preseason confidence was not initially reflected in the team’s performance, with losses to Bishop O’Connell and Georgetown Visitation. However, the team quickly got back on track as DCIAA conference play began. A close win over School Without Walls, 48-43, and commanding wins, 48-18, over Dunbar and, 61-41, over Friendship Collegiate Academy quickly erased the early losses. The one blemish was a 69-46 loss to Eastern, and the Tigers held an overall record of 4-3 going into winter break.
“We formed and melded together as a team, which I didn’t think would happen as quickly as we did,” said junior guard Lucia Nawar. “This year we really came together, and we’re all really good friends on and off the court, so I would say that that helped us.”
The Tigers would ring in the new year with an impressive run, dominating DCIAA conference play and beating a GDS team in the regular season that beat them in the DCSAA championship the previous year. However, this run would come to an end at the hands of Coolidge, which defeated the Tigers, 81-45. The girls quickly picked up the pieces though and closed out the regular season with several good results, including a 20 point win over Banneker, another solid DCIAA team.
Going into the DCIAA playoffs, the expectations that the team set for themselves were lofty but clear: to win. The Tigers had a good chance at getting their first DCIAA championship since 2016, since they were seeded third. After a comfortable 44-16 victory over Roosevelt in the quarterfinals, the team traveled to Eastern, looking to exact revenge for their loss earlier in the season. However, things didn’t go as planned and, going into halftime, the girls trailed by 16 points.
“Ordinarily most people would want to give up at that point, but we felt very positive about that, we thought we could be right there if we get a few stops,” explained assistant coach Leonard. “But the rebounding was something we didn’t do a great job of, handing them second-chance opportunities, and then they started getting hot, and before you knew it it snowballed.”
Coming out of the half, frustration got the best of the Tigers. Despite their initial confidence, passing mistakes and turnovers, as well as being dominated in rebounds allowed the Ramblers to go on a run to start the second half, leading them to a comfortable victory, 74-45.
In the DCSAA Class A bracket, the Tigers would have the number two seed, making a third straight appearance in the championship game a very strong possibility. With the Tigers looking to rebound from previous losses in states, it appeared that they would have to overcome a familiar foe.
“Looking at the bracket, it looks like we will play Eastern in the championship again,” said junior guard Ava Piotrowski. “So we have to work on our passes, work on boxing out in the gym, getting our shots up, and just work on trusting one another.”
However, things would not go as planned. Following a comfortable 60-36 win over McKinley Tech in the quarterfinals, the Tigers went into the semifinals against GDS at Georgetown full of confidence. After leading a close first half, the Tigers failed to jump at an opportunity to pull away in the fourth quarter. The Hoppers came back and eventually forced overtime, where the Tigers would fall by four points, 76-72. •
