The Aliso Niguel High School girls basketball team has been continuing their season by wrapping up their non-conference games over break, and then starting league play with school back in session.
Back in December, the Wolverines were off to a great start, winning all of their games against Tesoro, Edison and SPXSMA; however, as the games continued throughout the rest of the month, the Wolverines fell into a slump.
At home, the Wolverines played against Temecula Valley High School, which has a record of 13-7. At halftime, the score was tied at 24; however, Temecula Valley ended up pulling away, with the Aliso girls only scoring a total of four points in the fourth quarter. The final score of the game was a 37 to 45 loss at home.
A week later the girls went on to challenge Mountainside High School, a team traveling all the way from Oregon. Mountainside is currently ranked twenty-second in the state of Oregon with a record of 11-3. During the game, things did not go well for the Wolverines. The final score ended up being 66-33 in favor of Mountainside, which extended the Wolverine’s losing streak to two games.
Following the Mountainside game, the Wolverines had three more games to finish their 2024 season.
The Wolverines played against Cypress High School, dropping another game by 15 points with a final score of 35-50 in favor of the Centurions.
Aliso then played against the Huntington Beach Oilers, in which once again the Wolverines lost by a considerable 26-point margin. This saw their record drop to nine wins and seven losses, extending the losing streak to four games.
The girls had one more chance to end the old year on a positive note, against Tustin High School. The girls ended up getting the job done, winning by 12 points against a strong Tustin side. This put an end to the Wolverine’s losing streak, improving their record to 10-7.
As the new year began, Andreanna Javing (12) was generous enough to speak to the Growling Wolverine about the team. Javing stated, “Something we’ve tried putting an emphasis on this year is building our community, so oftentimes the team spends time in our room together listening to hype-up music and laughing in order to get ready for the games.”
The girls had one more preseason game in the new year before heading off for league play, against a weak Poway High School team.
The Wolverines picked up where they left off at the end of the year, claiming their second victory in a row in a thrilling way to end non-league play for the season.
Sophomore Shyla Garg stated, “We play for each other, so the motivation behind each of our actions on the court is to be the best player for our team that we could possibly be.”
This year, the Wolverines will look to finish out the season strong in hopes of making CIF playoffs and are playing in the South Coast League with the San Clemente Tritons, the San Juan Hills Stallions, the Dana Hills Dolphins and the Trabuco Hills Mustangs.
