On Saturday, March 9 at 2:45 p.m, the North’s varsity girls basketball team lost a close game 60-52 to the Incarnate Word Academy Red Knights in the class 4 basketball quarterfinals, hosted by Francis Howell Central High. While this was a disappointing loss, the girls still had a very successful season.

“I was pleasantly surprised how this group did, how they came together, and there’s still great talent here,” said head coach Brett Katz. “I think our team really gelled as much as any team that we’ve had here, and that’s a big reason for our success this season.”

Despite North being behind in the beginning, they managed to continue fighting and come back in the fourth quarter.

“I think that we stayed the course really well and never gave up,” said junior Mackenzie Rhodes. “Even when we got down we kept fighting until the very end.”

Incarnate Word came out strong and had a 20-11 lead after the 1st quarter. They continued to out-score the Vikings each quarter until the last quarter when the Vikings began a comeback.

“We played as a team and shot really well [which helped us win more games, as well as almost win the quarter finals],” said senior Je’Naiya Davis.

While North had thought out strategies, there were some factors that caused them to have shortcomings.

“Our help defense could have been better. We left our girls out to dry a few times,” said Rhodes. “[Our biggest downs were] when [Incarnate Word] would score off easy baskets.”

Several players had noteworthy performances during the game and helped the Vikings do as well as they did.

“Amanda [Brooks]’s performance stuck out. She hit some big important shots for us, hustled and rebounded the ball, which we really needed,” said Rhodes.

“Mackenzie and Amanda did really well,” said Davis.

With a 23-7 record this season, the team, as a whole had a successful year, winning the District title for the 17th time on Feb. 28 when they beat Westminster 56-52, and winning Sectionals against Clayton 67-31 on March 5.

“A couple good things happened this year: [We] won the Lebanon tournament, [where there were] some really great state rated teams,” said Katz. “I thought we performed really well in Districts, beating John Burroughs and Westminster.”

“[Next year, one thing that would make the season better would be to] come out on a better start,” said Davis.