The last time girls freshman basketball faced off against the Red Arrows of Lowell they lost by one in a close game. Yesterday, they had another tight game against Lowell but were once again not able to come out on top, losing 28-26.

After multiple offensive rebounds, the first points of the game were scored by Lowell to give them a small lead. Freshman Lauren Bont tied it up by getting an opportunity for an easy layup for 2. Minutes later, knowing the Lowell point guard was going to pass right, freshman Ella Sloat jumped the passing lane to take the steal. She took it down for an easy 2 on the other end to put the Rangers up by 3 late into the first quarter 9-6. With 5 seconds left in the quarter, Lowell got another offensive rebound for a chance to take the lead, they get a shot off and it fell in at the buzzer to give Lowell the lead 10-9.

A slow start in the second quarter led to no points being scored in the first minute and a half by either team. Freshman Maddie Knoor was able to break the series of events with a three-point play to give FHC a 12-10 lead. Later in the quarter, the Rangers started to get flustered by the Arrow defense, leading to many turnovers and an easy bucket for the Arrows. This forced first-year head coach Holly Wierenga to take a timeout after Lowell was able to gain the lead on the defensive play 14-12.

“Sometimes we just need to take a deep breath,” Wierenga said. “[We needed to] calm down and slow things down a bit to make a good pass or execute the play well. I knew we just needed to collect ourselves and refocus.”

Coming out of the timeout, the girls were more focused on offense and gave few turnovers; freshman Morghan Tilton was even able to knock down a 3 from an out of bounds play. This added to another 2 from Ella, who had 11 points throughout the night, gave the Rangers a 17-14 lead. Lowell, however, scored from behind the arc with a few seconds left to tie it going into halftime.

After a back and forth 3rd quarter, the Rangers were finally able to stop Lowell’s last-second shots to give themselves a 23-21 lead. Freshman Audrey Sidebotham earned her first points of the night in this quarter with 4. Ella was once again able to read the point guards eyes for another steal and score.

During the fourth quarter, the team started to lose momentum and went back to being unable to snatch the offensive and defensive rebounds; this gave Lowell the opportunity to take the lead 25-23. Having the lead, Lowell began to slow the game down. They were successful and ended it 28-26.

The Rangers have only one week left in their season. Wierenga says she hopes they can get another win or two to end the season on a high note, but even if they cannot get it, she says she is proud of them anyways.

“I just hope that my team can see how much we have improved since the first games of the season,” Wierenga said. “I know our record does not show it, but we are losing by 2 or 5 now instead of getting blown out. Sometimes it is hard to see how far we have come but I am so proud of them either way. I just hope we can get another one or two wins to end the season on a high note and be rewarded for all of the hard work we put in the past couple of months.”