Seniors Clover and Hodges play final game of careers

By SHEILA G. KELLEY

News editor

What started out as a promising game turned into anything but Monday for the Peabody-Burns girls as they lost to Berean Academy 51-15.

Warriors freshman Skylre Stucky sank the first basket of the game in the first 50 seconds, but Berean went on a 19-0 run for the rest of the quarter.

Continued struggles with rebounds, turnovers, and fullcourt press pressure allowed Berean to end the first half 31-5.

Without the fullcourt press, the Warriors were able to take the ball to the basket more in the second half, scoring 10 points before the final buzzer.

“The scores of basketball games do not reflect the gains these young ladies made throughout the season,” coach Travis Schafer said. “Not only did they commit themselves to a two-and-a-half hour practice every day, but they came in early mornings for shoot-arounds three days a week.”

Team members have been helping in the community on Saturday mornings and weekday evenings after practice.

These projects consisted of helping with Peabody-Burns Jingle Bell 5k, moving valuable items for an auction of a community member, volunteering at a dodgeball tournament, and working with young Warriors at basketball camp, Schafer said.

Team members also went out of their way to personally thank community members who graciously donate to the team.

“The girls truly bought in to putting others before themselves,” Schafer said. “I firmly believe they helped start the new beginning of what Peabody-Burns truly stands for.”

Ending the season winless is difficult, but Schafer said he was proud of what the team accomplished.

“As a basketball team, we grew immensely,” he said. “Although we relied heavily on our two seniors, the freshmen and sophomores got a tremendous amount of varsity experience.

“We took beginning steps to be a competitive team, and expectations have now grown leading into next year.”

The support from parents and community members is very important to the team, and with their help, he feels they will be successful in the future.

“I told our two seniors after the game last night that they can always know they helped build the future culture of the female athletics program at Peabody-Burns, and that is something to always be proud of,” he said.

Scoring summary: Stucky, 4 points; Mya Winter, 4; Sydney Hodges, McKayla Hauck, and Kaete Johnson, 2 each; Sarah Spencer, 1.