The night started out with the stunning voice of Kendra Beckman, the FHC girls varsity basketball assist coach, singing the national anthem. The singing itself was impressive, but the Rangers effort against their conference opponent, the Greenville Yellow Jackets, was that much better.

The FHC girls varsity basketball team started the game off slow, as they went down 0-6 two minutes into the first quarter. Junior Madi Winter was able to ignite the team, scoring five points in an instance to make it 5-6. After missing a few jump shots, the Rangers started to lose the momentum they once had. Coming off the bench, junior Emma Yoder was set on scoring inside the paint.

“The energy of the team was just really flowing,” Emma said. “A lot of the girls were excited and ready to go.”

Despite the amazing efforts of the Rangers in the first half, they were still down by twelve due to the sharp-shooting of Greenville.

The halftime pep talk by Prins was one that would change the game.

“We talked about making sure we’re in help defense and giving Emma the ball,” she said. “That’s what was working.”

With the incentive of winning, the girls were able to start converting on offense while ceasing Greenville’s scoring attack.

Unable to obtain a lead, the Rangers resorted to fouling to get the opportunity of being on offense once again. They were able to keep the momentum going for the first half of the closing quarter.

“We fought back, but we still have to push a little harder,” Prins said. “I think that starts in practice, so we’ll get after it.”

The game ended with the Rangers losing by six points, but the efforts of the team were astounding. At the end of the game, Emma was the night’s leading scorer with 29, despite it being her first game back after her concussion.

“She’s been working really hard, and she puts in a lot of time,” Prins said. “To see her have a great game was a blast. We want to get better everyday and improve. We need to keep playing hard and really working on defense.”