The Northville freshman team faced a long bus ride to get to Athens, which was lengthened further by them initially going to Troy High, and both they and the Lady Redhawks took a while to get warmed up. The score after the first quarter showed Athens leading 3 to 2. Said guard Gia Leong, “They were a really aggressive team. I feel like they read where the ball was going to well and forced a lot of turnovers, but we did the same and went on a nice run.” Athens took a 15 to 8 lead into half-time and then got some separation with a 21 to 7 third quarter, finishing with a 38 – 23 victory. The game was foul-heavy on both sides with Athens committing 21 fouls and Northville 17. Athens’ transgressions tended to be further from the basket while Northville’s were committed while stopping drives, which resulted in the Lady Redhawks shooting 13 of 23 from the line (57%) compared to Northville’s 3 of 9. Sophia Alexander agreed with Gia. “I think that they were a very good team. They didn’t have one person who carried them; it was all spread out. We did have a hard time getting people open.” Both guards complimented the play of teammate Carmen Cavataio. Per Gia, “Carmen had a really good game today on both offense and defense. Especially when she was playing the guard spot, she did a good job setting up our offense.” And Sophia, “She had a lot of steals, and I’m don’t remember if she scored a lot but she did get a lot of steals and good looks. I believe the best people on our team for defense are Bree, Gia, and Carmen. They’re all very aggressive.” Both players were also asked about their busy schedules with exams this week in addition to other activities along with basketball. Gia explained, “I’m doing travel volleyball and this week is mid-terms week, and I have driver’s ed and stuff, but I think I’m managing it okay.” And Sophia (who is juggling a time-intensive Robotics class with basketball), “It is very stressful because I have many other things going on besides basketball and studies, and it’s a lot sometimes, but I learn to manage it because it’s for my future, and I don’t want to do anything to hurt my future.” Sophia led all scorers with 11 points (6 of 8 from the line), Arianna Saracevic had 6; Bree Rota, Carmen Cavataio, and Emily Cousino had 5 each; Charlotte Riffe 3, Mallory Colussi 2, and Gia 1.